I'm using MySQL on Linux (CentOS, recent release). I want the MySQL system variable `time_zone` to reflect UTC. 

When I start a MySQL session (using the command-line tool `mysql`) and check the time zone setting, I see this:

```
mysql> select @session.time_zone ;
+--------------------+
| @session.time_zone |
+--------------------+
| NULL               |
+--------------------+
1 row in set (0.00 sec)

```

I know (see [MySQL Set UTC time as default timestamp](https://dba.stackexchange.com/questions/20217/mysql-set-utc-time-as-default-timestamp)) that I can configure the *server* to have UTC as its default timezone. What I want is to set up a **client session** to have UTC as the default.

The page above says I can set a MySQL system variable in my SQL syntax, like this:

```
mysql> set @session.time_zone="+0:00";

```

This leads to having the session time zone to be the local (`SYSTEM`) time zone:

```
mysql> show variables like '%zone%' ;
+------------------+--------+
| Variable_name    | Value  |
+------------------+--------+
| system_time_zone | PDT    |
| time_zone        | SYSTEM |
+------------------+--------+
2 rows in set (0.00 sec)

```

What I'd like to do is to set the time zone as a kind of preference for a user, like a setting in `.my.cnf`.

Problem is, the [MySQL 'mysql' command options](https://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.5/en/mysql-command-options.html) don't list a 'time zone' option for `.my.cnf`, and (of course I had to try it anyway) putting

```
 time_zone="+0:00"

```

in my `$HOME/.my.cnf` file leads to the message

```
 mysql: unknown variable 'time_zone=+0.00'

```

I tried setting the `TZ` environment variable, and that has no impact.

As the StackExchange reference above says, the only effective way I've found is through issuing the SQL command:

```
mysql> select @session.time_zone ;
+--------------------+
| @session.time_zone |
+--------------------+
| NULL               |
+--------------------+
1 row in set (0.00 sec)

mysql> set @session.time_zone="+0:00";
Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.00 sec)

mysql> select @session.time_zone ;
+--------------------+
| @session.time_zone |
+--------------------+
| +0:00              |
+--------------------+
1 row in set (0.00 sec)

```

**So...**

My question then is, is there some other mechanism for setting MySQL session variables? Or some other way to set the session time zone?