How to install tzdata on a ubuntu docker image?

One line only:

RUN DEBIAN_FRONTEND=noninteractive TZ=Etc/UTC apt-get -y install tzdata

You can use ARG and ENV directives to your advantage:

ARG DEBIAN_FRONTEND=noninteractive
ENV TZ=Europe/Moscow
RUN apt-get install -y tzdata

This way DEBIAN_FRONTEND will be defined only while you build your image while TZ will persist at runtime.

You need to execute serie of commands:

    # set noninteractive installation
    export DEBIAN_FRONTEND=noninteractive
    # install tzdata package
    apt-get install -y tzdata
    # set your timezone
    ln -fs /usr/share/zoneinfo/America/New_York /etc/localtime
    dpkg-reconfigure --frontend noninteractive tzdata

(commands which start with # are comments and you can ignore them)

The best way is to create script, copy the script to container and execute it In Dockerfile:

ADD yourscript.sh /yourscript.sh
RUN /yourscript.sh

Set two environment variables in a docker-compose file. One disables the prompt, and the other sets the timezone.

docker-compose.yml

version: '3.7'
services:
  timezone:
    build: .
    environment:
      - TZ=America/New_York
      - DEBIAN_FRONTEND=noninteractive

Then simply install tzdata in your image.

Dockerfile

FROM ubuntu:18.04
RUN apt-get update && apt-get install -y tzdata
# Testing command: Print the date.  It will be in the timezone set from the compose file.
CMD date

To test:

docker-compose build timezone

Make sure if you're using @petertc's solution and are doing apt-get update && apt-get install on the same line that the DEBIAN_FRONTEND statement is after the &&:

Right:

RUN apt-get update && DEBIAN_FRONTEND="noninteractive" TZ="America/New_York" apt-get install -y tzdata

Wrong:

RUN DEBIAN_FRONTEND="noninteractive" TZ="America/New_York" apt-get update && apt-get install -y tzdata

From a simple Dockerfile it works but it might require further tweaking (tz is 19:25 but 16:25 inside docker, idc now because it is for automation purpose on a ARM64 jetson nano)

RUN export TZ=Europe/Paris
RUN pip3 install -U Cython contextlib2 pillow lxml jupyter matplotlib
RUN DEBIAN_FRONTEND=noninteractive apt-get install protobuf-compiler python-pil python-lxml python-tk -y

Unpacking protobuf-compiler (3.0.0-9.1ubuntu1) ...
Setting up python-chardet (3.0.4-1) ...
Setting up tzdata (2019c-0ubuntu0.18.04) ...

Current default time zone: 'Etc/UTC'
Local time is now:      Wed Apr 22 16:25:17 UTC 2020.
Universal Time is now:  Wed Apr 22 16:25:17 UTC 2020.
Run 'dpkg-reconfigure tzdata' if you wish to change it.

Setting up libxss1:arm64 (1:1.2.2-1) ...

For me, it worked and I preferred this way (this way you don't need to set a noninteractive mode):

Set an environment variable with your timezone, for instance: ENV TZ=Europe/Madrid

Then, print this variable into a file and then link that file to the file which the the configuration process will read when installing tzdata: RUN ln -snf /usr/share/zoneinfo/$TZ /etc/localtime && echo $TZ > /etc/timezone

Finally, install tzdata normally: RUN apt-get update && apt-get install -y tzdata

Extracted from: https://dev.to/setevoy/docker-configure-tzdata-and-timezone-during-build-20bk

On focal 20.04 the solutions using TZ=... and DEBIAN_FRONTEND=... does not work anymore. It used to work till bionic 18.04. The docker file snippet that works for focal look like:

   ## preesed tzdata, update package index, upgrade packages and install needed software
   RUN truncate -s0 /tmp/preseed.cfg && \
       (echo "tzdata tzdata/Areas select America" >> /tmp/preseed.cfg) && \
       (echo "tzdata tzdata/Zones/America select Los_Angeles" >> /tmp/preseed.cfg) && \
       debconf-set-selections /tmp/preseed.cfg && \
       rm -f /etc/timezone /etc/localtime && \
       apt-get update && \
       DEBIAN_FRONTEND=noninteractive DEBCONF_NONINTERACTIVE_SEEN=true \
       apt-get install -y tzdata
   ## cleanup of files from setup
   RUN rm -rf /var/lib/apt/lists/* /tmp/* /var/tmp/*

The solution is mostly derived from another stackoverflow topic.

On ubuntu22:04 image, I got:

Setting up locales (2.34-0ubuntu3) ...
debconf: unable to initialize frontend: Dialog
debconf: (TERM is not set, so the dialog frontend is not usable.)
debconf: falling back to frontend: Readline
Generating locales (this might take a while)...
  de_AT.UTF-8... done
  ...
  sv_SE.UTF-8... done
Generation complete.
Setting up libjansson4:amd64 (2.13.1-1.1build2) ...
Setting up libsasl2-modules-db:amd64 (2.1.27+dfsg2-2build1) ...
Setting up tzdata (2021e-1ubuntu1) ...
debconf: unable to initialize frontend: Dialog
debconf: (TERM is not set, so the dialog frontend is not usable.)
debconf: falling back to frontend: Readline
Configuring tzdata
------------------

Please select the geographic area in which you live. Subsequent configuration
questions will narrow this down by presenting a list of cities, representing
the time zones in which they are located.

  1. Africa   3. Antarctica  5. Arctic  7. Atlantic  9. Indian    11. US
  2. America  4. Australia   6. Asia    8. Europe    10. Pacific  12. Etc
Geographic area:

so that the Dockerfile would not build.

Taken from Getting tons of debconf messages unless TERM is set to linux #58, I needed to run:

RUN echo 'debconf debconf/frontend select Noninteractive' | debconf-set-selections
# And afterwards whatever you like, for example:
RUN DEBIAN_FRONTEND=noninteractive apt-get update && apt-get -y \
--no-install-recommends install ...

which stopped debconf reporting on the missing terminal and also stopped the tzdata installer from opening the locations menu during the Dockerfile build.