[REQUEST] Support POSIX timezone formats (e.g., BRT3) in Web UI settings and documentation
Problem Statement
When using minimal container images (such as browserless/chrome, which runs on a lightweight Ubuntu 24.04 base without tzdata), standard IANA timezone identifiers like America/Sao_Paulo fail to resolve inside the container. Since /usr/share/zoneinfo/America/Sao_Paulo is missing, glibc/musl falls back to UTC time.
Manually adding a POSIX timezone format such as "timeZone": "BRT3" directly into state/settings.json works flawlessly under the hood. Because POSIX formats calculate the offset mathematically directly in the C standard library (glibc/musl), it requires zero files, no tzdata packages, and no /etc/timezone volume mounts.
However, the Runtipi Web UI currently restricts or does not facilitate entering POSIX timezone strings.
Proposed Solution
Web UI Support:
- Allow entering or selecting POSIX-compliant timezone formats (e.g.,
BRT3,EST5EDT,UTC0,<-03>3) in the Runtipi Web UI settings instead of strictly validating against the IANA timezone database. - If a dropdown is used, allow a custom write-in option or include standard POSIX representations.
- Allow entering or selecting POSIX-compliant timezone formats (e.g.,
Documentation:
- Document POSIX timezone format support in Runtipi's configuration docs as a recommended universal alternative for users running minimal/slim containers that lack the
tzdatapackage.
- Document POSIX timezone format support in Runtipi's configuration docs as a recommended universal alternative for users running minimal/slim containers that lack the
Why this is useful
- Universal Compatibility: POSIX timezone strings work out-of-the-box on virtually all Linux images (Ubuntu, Debian, Alpine, BusyBox) without needing any installed packages or host volume mounts.
- Zero Breaking Changes: Under the hood, Runtipi already passes the value from
settings.jsoninto the containers viaTZ, meaning this only requires frontend validation/support in the Web UI.
Environment
- Runtipi Version: v4.10.1
- Host OS: DietPi v10.7.2
Source: runtipi/runtipi