Python: Figure out local timezone

Question

I want to compare UTC timestamps from a log file with local timestamps. When creating the local datetime object, I use something like:

>>&         


        

Answer 1

I have also been looking for a simple way to read the local host configuration and get timezone aware local_time based on it. As of python 3.6+ the simplest approach is use dateutil.tz which will read /etc/localtime and assist in getting timezone aware datetime object.

Here is more info on it: https://dateutil.readthedocs.io/en/stable/tz.html

The implementation to accomplish what you're looking for is as follows:

from datetime import datetime
from dateutil import tz
local_time = datetime.now(tz.gettz())

This will provide you the following local_time:

2019-10-18 13:41:06.624536-05:00

Additional Resources I used in researching this topic: Paul Ganssle Presentation about time zones: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l4UCKCo9FWY

pytz: The Fastest Footgun in the West https://blog.ganssle.io/articles/2018/03/pytz-fastest-footgun.html