Docker Timezone in Ubuntu 16.04 Image - datetime

Question

I have created a Docker container using the Ubuntu 16.04 image.
docker run -it -d --name containername -v /var/www/public --privileged ubuntu
after creating the container, I checked the date inside the container:
$ date
Tue Oct 25 08:10:34 UTC 2016
But, I need it to use the Asia/Kolkata timezone. So I tried changing the /etc/timezone file, then docker stop and docker start the container, but it doesn't work. It still shows the same time.
How can I change the time zone in the Docker container after creating it?

Answer 1

Updating /etc/timezone is the usual way, but there's a bug in Xenial which means that doesn't work.
Instead you need to create a link from the desired timezone to etc/localtime:
FROM ubuntu:xenial
RUN ln -fs /usr/share/zoneinfo/US/Pacific-New /etc/localtime && dpkg-reconfigure -f noninteractive tzdata

Answer 2

In ubuntu 16.04 i was missing tzdata so i had to install it. Working solution was
ENV TZ 'Europe/Tallinn'
RUN echo $TZ > /etc/timezone && \
apt-get update && apt-get install -y tzdata && \
rm /etc/localtime && \
ln -snf /usr/share/zoneinfo/$TZ /etc/localtime && \
dpkg-reconfigure -f noninteractive tzdata && \
apt-get clean

Answer 3

Try:
echo "Asia/Kolkata" > /etc/timezone
rm -f /etc/localtime
dpkg-reconfigure -f noninteractive tzdata
You have to do rm /etc/localtime because of the Ubuntu bug.

Answer 4

As said here, the secret is that dpkg-reconfigure tzdata simply creates /etc/localtime as a copy, hardlink or symlink (a symlink is preferred) to a file in /usr/share/zoneinfo. So it is possible to do this entirely from your Dockerfile. Consider:
ENV TZ=America/Los_Angeles
RUN ln -snf /usr/share/zoneinfo/$TZ /etc/localtime && echo $TZ > /etc/timezone
And as a bonus, TZ will be set correctly in the container as well.
This is also distribution-agnostic, so it works with pretty much anything Linux.

Answer 5

My issue has been solved with this very simple solution (https://serverfault.com/a/826222) : Add timezone in environment variable.
The command is docker run -e TZ=Europe/Amsterdam ...
Or, using docker-compose, like I do :
version: '3'
services:
web:
build: ./app
ports:
- ...
volumes:
- ...
environment:
- TZ=Europe/Paris
In my case, no more tzdata needed, or volume share with /etc/timezone & /etc/localtime.
Hope it helps !

Answer 6

If you use docker-compose, just add one line to your docker-compose.yml file.
version: '3'
services:
ubuntu-local:
image: ubuntu:16.04
restart: on-failure
command: python3 run_my_code.py
working_dir: /code
volumes:
- ./code:/code
- /etc/localtime:/etc/localtime:ro # <--add this line to set timezone
environment:
- PYTHONUNBUFFERED=1

Answer 7

I took this approach:
Copy file /etc/localtime somewhere.
Open it and find the this number (highlighted with yellow)
-3 corresponds to Moscow time. For Berlin set -1 . If you need positive value, set UTC2
Copy and modify /etc/timezone according to your time zone.
Link them to your container
Result:

Answer 8

SOLVED:
FROM ubuntu:16.04
RUN apt-get update && \
apt-get install -y software-properties-common apt-utils locales tzdata
RUN echo "tzdata tzdata/Areas select Europe" > timezone.txt
RUN echo "tzdata tzdata/Zones/Europe select Rome" >> timezone.txt
RUN debconf-set-selections timezone.txt
RUN rm /etc/timezone
RUN rm /etc/localtime
RUN dpkg-reconfigure -f noninteractive tzdata

Answer 9

Simply map the volume while running docker container
-v /etc/timezone:/etc/timezone:ro

Answer 10

I am also experiencing this issue for a Ubuntu 18.04 docker container. Since tzdata package is not installed. There is no /usr/share/zoneinfo dir inside the docker. We need to first install tzdata and use dpkg-reconfigure to set the timezone. The following docker command works for me:
ENV DEBIAN_FRONTEND=noninteractive
RUN apt-get update && apt-get install -y --no-install-recommends tzdata \
&& rm -rf /var/lib/apt/lists/*
RUN ln -fs /usr/share/zoneinfo/Asia/Shanghai /etc/localtime \
&& dpkg-reconfigure --frontend noninteractive tzdata

Answer 11

Dockerfile:
RUN apt-get update && \
apt-get install -yq tzdata && \
ln -fs /usr/share/zoneinfo/America/New_York /etc/localtime && \
dpkg-reconfigure -f noninteractive tzdata
Reference: https://dev.to/0xbf/set-timezone-in-your-docker-image-d22
Note: Need to run it as root user