What is tzlinkd on Mac?
Time zone link daemon · seed · quit hint: caution
tzlinkd is a macOS process (listed here as Time zone link daemon). People usually find it in Activity Monitor when asking “what is this process?”
What does tzlinkd do?
tzlinkd is the libutil root daemon behind tzlink(3). Entitled clients ask it to validate a zoneinfo file and overwrite the timezone link at TZDEFAULT under /var/db/timezone. launchd starts it on demand for the com.apple.tzlink Mach service when Date & Time or location services change the zone. You need it for those timezone changes to apply; quitting only delays the next change until relaunch. Timezone database downloads are handled by tzd, not this daemon.
Is it safe to quit tzlinkd?
Hint: caution. SystemWoe Free and Pro refuse to quit protected apps or Time Machine — Pro adds force-quit only with confirmation.
Further reading
- https://github.com/apple-oss-distributions/libutil/blob/main/tzlink.h
- https://support.apple.com/guide/mac-help/set-the-date-and-time-on-your-mac-mchlp2996/mac
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