GoogleContainerTools/jib · error · BadContainerConfigurationFormatException

Invalid image creation time: + containerConfigurationTemplat

Error message

Invalid image creation time: + containerConfigurationTemplate.getCreated()

What it means

The container configuration's 'created' timestamp must be an ISO-8601 offset date-time. Jib parses it with DateTimeFormatter.ISO_OFFSET_DATE_TIME (working around the lack of Instant.parse for offsets on Java < 12) and throws BadContainerConfigurationFormatException when parsing fails.

Source

Thrown at jib-core/src/main/java/com/google/cloud/tools/jib/image/json/JsonToImageTranslator.java:160

  private static void configureBuilderWithContainerConfiguration(
      Image.Builder imageBuilder, ContainerConfigurationTemplate containerConfigurationTemplate)
      throws BadContainerConfigurationFormatException {

    containerConfigurationTemplate.getHistory().forEach(imageBuilder::addHistory);

    if (containerConfigurationTemplate.getCreated() != null) {
      try {
        imageBuilder.setCreated(Instant.parse(containerConfigurationTemplate.getCreated()));
      } catch (DateTimeParseException ex) {
        try {
          // TODO: remove when using Java >= 12.
          // See https://github.com/GoogleContainerTools/jib/issues/2428
          imageBuilder.setCreated(
              DateTimeFormatter.ISO_OFFSET_DATE_TIME.parse(
                  containerConfigurationTemplate.getCreated(), Instant::from));
        } catch (DateTimeParseException ignored) {
          throw new BadContainerConfigurationFormatException(
              "Invalid image creation time: " + containerConfigurationTemplate.getCreated(), ex);
        }
      }
    }

    if (containerConfigurationTemplate.getArchitecture() != null) {
      imageBuilder.setArchitecture(containerConfigurationTemplate.getArchitecture());
    }
    if (containerConfigurationTemplate.getOs() != null) {
      imageBuilder.setOs(containerConfigurationTemplate.getOs());
    }

    imageBuilder.setEntrypoint(containerConfigurationTemplate.getContainerEntrypoint());
    imageBuilder.setProgramArguments(containerConfigurationTemplate.getContainerCmd());

    List<String> baseHealthCheckCommand = containerConfigurationTemplate.getContainerHealthTest();
    if (baseHealthCheckCommand != null) {
      DockerHealthCheck.Builder builder = DockerHealthCheck.fromCommand(baseHealthCheckCommand);

View on GitHub (pinned to fb949e2676)

Solutions

1. Fix the container configuration's 'created' field to ISO-8601 with offset, e.g. '2023-01-15T10:30:00+00:00' or '...Z'
2. Pre-validate the timestamp with DateTimeFormatter.ISO_OFFSET_DATE_TIME parse in a try-catch before calling toImage
3. Catch BadContainerConfigurationFormatException and fall back to a default created time or omit the field

Example fix

// before
"created": "2023/01/15 10:30:00"
// after
"created": "2023-01-15T10:30:00Z"

try {
  DateTimeFormatter.ISO_OFFSET_DATE_TIME.parse(created, Instant::from);
} catch (DateTimeParseException e) {
  throw new IllegalArgumentException("created must be ISO-8601 offset date-time: " + created);
}

try { JsonToImageTranslator.toImage(manifest, config); } catch (BadContainerConfigurationFormatException e) { /* normalize 'created' to ISO-8601 and retry */ }

When it happens

Trigger: Calling JsonToImageTranslator.toImage with a container configuration whose 'created' field is absent of timezone offset, empty, or in a non-ISO format (e.g. epoch millis, 'yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm:ss').

Common situations: Container configs produced by non-Docker tooling writing local-format timestamps; hand-edited config JSON; registries serving configs with nonconforming created fields; configs from older builders using different date formats.

Related errors

• Diff ID not available for reference layer without diff ID
• Mismatch between image manifest and container configuration
• Invalid environment variable definition: + environmentVariab
• Path does not start with forward slash (/): ${unixPath}
• Cannot create AbsoluteUnixPath from non-absolute Path: ${pat

AI-assisted analysis of GoogleContainerTools/jib@fb949e2676 (2026-09-06). Data as JSON: /api/errors/b9c1a86accf14e16. Report an issue: GitHub.