Set APP_TIMEZONE also as Docker Container Environment Variable

[RrOoSsSsOo]

Is possible to set the APP_TIMEZONE of /var/www/html/.env file also from Docker Container Environment Variable APP_TIMEZONE?

docker run ... -E APP_TIMEZONE=Europe/Rome ...

[bnussbau]

Yes, this is possible

[RrOoSsSsOo]

Because it remains the default 'UTC' when I set it... (and timestamps inside container logs are wrong...)

[bnussbau]

That's true, I don't see a way to override the container timezone.
But the PHP Carbon instance respects the timezone, which means playlist scheduling works as expected.

[RrOoSsSsOo]

Maybe an Alpine docker image with tzdata configured and set by APP_TIMEZONE docker environment variable?

My playlist scheduling doesn't work as expected.

[bnussbau]

At the moment, I’m not planning to move away from serversideup/docker-php, as it provides many convenient features.
Feel free to create a container based on Alpine that fits your needs. The .devcontainer setup could serve as a good starting point.

[bnussbau]

My playlist scheduling doesn't work as expected.

That is strange, others have reported that it works just fine: #75, #99
I have not noticed any problems either, I am on Timezone Europe/Vienna.

[RrOoSsSsOo]

My playlist scheduling doesn't work as expected.

That is strange, others have reported that it works just fine: #75, #99 I have not noticed any problems either, I am on Timezone Europe/Vienna.

Are you on v0.18.1?

[bnussbau]

Yes, just tested with Europe/Rome and a playlist 16:20 - 16:27. Worked as expected.

docker run -p 8082:8080 -e APP_TIMEZONE=Europe/Rome --rm ghcr.io/usetrmnl/byos_laravel:0.18.1

Could you provide more details?

[RrOoSsSsOo]

Both Windows Docker and Synology Docker (15 instead 17...)

docker run -p 8082:8080 -e APP_TIMEZONE=Europe/Rome --rm ghcr.io/usetrmnl/byos_laravel:0.18.1

---

---

/ | ___ _ ____ _____ _ __ / |() | | ___ | | | | __
_ \ / _ \ \ \ / / _ \ | _ | |/ ` |/ _ \ | | | | _
) | __/ | \ V / __/ | ) | | (| | __/ | || | |) |
|/ _|| _/ _|| |/||_,|_| _/| .__/
||

Brought to you by serversideup.net

🙌 To support Server Side Up projects visit:
https://serversideup.net/sponsor

---

ℹ️ Container Information

OS: Alpine Linux v3.22
Docker user: www-data
Docker uid: 82
Docker gid: 82
OPcache: ❌ Disabled
PHP Version: 8.4.11
Image Version: v3.5.2-16902924956

👉 [NOTICE]: Improve PHP performance by setting PHP_OPCACHE_ENABLE=1 (recommended for production).
(init-webserver-config): Processing /etc/nginx/nginx.conf.template → /etc/nginx/nginx.conf...
(init-webserver-config): Processing /etc/nginx/site-opts.d/http.conf.template → /etc/nginx/site-opts.d/http.conf...
(init-webserver-config): Processing /etc/nginx/site-opts.d/https.conf.template → /etc/nginx/site-opts.d/https.conf...
ℹ️ NOTICE (init-webserver-config): Enabling NGINX site with SSL "off"...
Checking for Laravel automations...
🚀 Clearing Laravel cache before attempting migrations...

INFO Configuration cache cleared successfully.

⚡️ Attempting database connection...
✅ Database connection successful.
🚀 Running migrations...

INFO Preparing database.

Creating migration table ....................................... 8.94ms DONE

INFO Running migrations.

0001_01_01_000000_create_users_table .......................... 37.60ms DONE
0001_01_01_000001_create_cache_table .......................... 11.41ms DONE
0001_01_01_000002_create_jobs_table ........................... 30.47ms DONE
2025_02_08_143219_create_devices_table ......................... 6.23ms DONE
2025_02_24_175846_create_personal_access_tokens_table ......... 18.45ms DONE
2025_02_26_095239_add_assign_new_devices_to_users_table ........ 5.04ms DONE
2025_02_26_144104_add_proxy_cloud_columns_to_devices_table .... 10.33ms DONE
2025_02_27_151530_add_last_log_request_to_devices_table ........ 4.53ms DONE
2025_03_07_133658_create_plugins_table ......................... 8.49ms DONE
2025_03_12_151937_create_playlists_table ....................... 6.80ms DONE
2025_03_12_191757_create_playlist_items_table .................. 5.90ms DONE
2025_03_14_211414_add_data_payload_updated_at_to_plugins_table . 7.40ms DONE
2025_03_18_110028_add_refresh_time_to_playlists_table .......... 5.51ms DONE
2025_04_26_120013_update_plugin_table_correct_recipe_typo ...... 0.56ms DONE
2025_05_05_151823_add_device_dimensions_to_devices_table ...... 11.62ms DONE
2025_05_05_174926_add_mirror_device_id_to_devices_table ....... 31.61ms DONE
2025_05_08_225241_add_assign_new_device_id_to_users_table ..... 34.45ms DONE
2025_05_10_182724_add_plugin_cache ............................. 8.04ms DONE
2025_05_10_202133_add_rotate_to_devices_table .................. 4.91ms DONE
2025_05_13_154942_add_image_format_to_devices_table ............ 7.36ms DONE
2025_05_28_232528_create_firmware_table ........................ 4.99ms DONE
2025_05_29_010428_add_update_firmware_id_to_devices_table ..... 30.50ms DONE
2025_06_01_195732_create_device_logs_table ..................... 5.12ms DONE
2025_06_03_141055_add_last_refresh_at_to_devices_table ......... 5.58ms DONE
2025_06_10_211056_add_mashup_to_playlist_items_table ........... 6.94ms DONE
2025_06_13_102932_add_configuration_to_plugins_table .......... 11.73ms DONE
2025_06_18_105902_add_battery_notification_sent_to_devices_table 7.38ms DONE
2025_06_20_163742_allow_long_polling_url ...................... 24.35ms DONE
2025_07_02_161953_add_polling_body_to_plugins_table ............ 4.86ms DONE
2025_07_02_231414_add_markup_language_to_plugins_table ......... 5.70ms DONE
2025_07_08_191003_add_sleep_mode_and_special_function_to_devices_table 22.10ms DONE
2025_07_10_164606_add_pause_until_to_devices_table ............. 7.38ms DONE
2025_08_04_064514_add_oidc_sub_to_users_table ................. 10.66ms DONE
2025_08_07_111635_create_device_models_table .................. 12.88ms DONE
2025_08_07_131843_add_device_model_id_to_devices_table ........ 28.39ms DONE
2025_08_16_135740_seed_device_models ........................... 9.91ms DONE
2025_08_22_231823_add_trmnlp_to_plugins_table .................. 5.01ms DONE

🔐 Linking the storage...

INFO The [public/storage] link has been connected to [storage/app/public].

🚀 Caching Laravel config...

INFO Configuration cached successfully.

🚀 Caching Laravel routes...

INFO Routes cached successfully.

🚀 Caching Laravel views...

INFO Blade templates cached successfully.

🚀 Caching Laravel events...

INFO Events cached successfully.

[22-Oct-2025 15:18:01] NOTICE: fpm is running, pid 116
[22-Oct-2025 15:18:01] NOTICE: ready to handle connections
✅ NGINX + PHP-FPM is running correctly.

[bnussbau]

Looks normal. And your playlist configuration? What exactly does not work as expected?

[RrOoSsSsOo]

I don't know why but the only way for me to have playlists scheduling work is having both app and Linux Container set with the same Timezone.
To do that, using the FROM your ghcr.io/usetrmnl/byos_laravel image, adding the tzdata package and set it with a TZ environment variable

services:
  app:
    container_name: terminus-laravel
    environment:
      # - APP_KEY=
      - PHP_OPCACHE_ENABLE=1
      - TRMNL_PROXY_REFRESH_MINUTES=15
      - DB_DATABASE=database/storage/database.sqlite
      - APP_TIMEZONE=${APP_TIMEZONE:-UTC}
      - TZ=${TZ:-UTC}
    image: rroossssoo/byos_laravel:${VERSION_BYOS_LARAVEL:-latest}
    build:
      context: .
      dockerfile_inline: |
        FROM ghcr.io/usetrmnl/byos_laravel:${VERSION_BYOS_LARAVEL:-latest}
        USER root
        RUN apk add --update --no-cache tzdata
        RUN cp /usr/share/zoneinfo/${TZ:-UTC}} /etc/localtime
        RUN echo "${TZ:-UTC}" > /etc/timezone
        USER www-data
    ports:
      - "4567:8080"
    volumes:
      - database:/var/www/html/database/storage
      - storage:/var/www/html/storage/app/public/images/generated
        restart: unless-stopped

volumes:
    database:
    storage:

with .env file with (otherwise take defaults values)

VERSION_BYOS_LARAVEL=0.18.1
APP_TIMEZONE=Europe/Rome
TZ=Europe/Rome
...

In other words: you can add these lines to you Dockerfile to make it works for all 😉

RUN apk add --update --no-cache tzdata
RUN cp /usr/share/zoneinfo/${TZ:-UTC}} /etc/localtime
RUN echo "${TZ:-UTC}" > /etc/timezone

[bnussbau]

Thanks for investigating! I’d still like to be able to reproduce the bug. Could you share how you created your playlists and how you verified that the timezone isn’t being applied to playlist scheduling?