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Accepted
Eric Citaire
Asked: 2020-04-17 01:09:29 +0800 CST

Docker container time 2 hours behind when TZ=CEST

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I try to run a Docker container with the same timezone as my Docker host. The host timezone is CEST.

When I run :

$ date
Thu Apr 16 11:04:11 CEST 2020
$ docker run -e TZ=CEST debian:buster date
Thu Apr 16 09:04:14 CEST 2020

The container is 2 hours behind the host.

On the other hand, if I set TZ=Europe/Paris, it works as expected :

$ docker run -e TZ=Europe/Paris debian:buster date
Thu Apr 16 11:04:22 CEST 2020

Is this a bug or am I missing something?

timezone daylight-saving docker

2 Answers

  1. The timezone is set by default and you need to change it manually.

    There are some options:

    Set it in the Dockerfile:

    ENV TZ=America/Los_Angeles
RUN ln -snf /usr/share/zoneinfo/$TZ /etc/localtime && echo $TZ > /etc/timezone

    Using volumes to synchronize with your host:

    volumes:
- "/etc/timezone:/etc/timezone:ro"
- "/etc/localtime:/etc/localtime:ro"

    or

    docker run -v /etc/timezone:/etc/timezone:ro

    Finally, set it manually but if you restart the container you lose the configuration:

    docker run -e TZ=America/New_York ubuntu date
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  2. Best Answer

    After some research, it appears that CEST is not a valid value for TZ environment variable. CEST is just a displayable version of CET when the current date is summer.

    In fact, if I set TZ to an obviously invalid value, it gives :

    $ TZ=FOO date
Fri Apr 17 14:07:56 FOO 2020

    Also note that it has nothing to do with Docker.

    References :

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