louislam/dockge · error · Error

Invalid timezone:

Error message

Invalid timezone:

What it means

DockgeServer.checkTimezone validates a timezone string by attempting dayjs.utc(...).tz(timezone); if dayjs throws (unknown timezone for the IANA db, or the utcOffset plugin misuse), it rethrows 'Invalid timezone:<timezone>'. Timezones must be IANA names resolvable by dayjs's timezone plugin.

Source

Thrown at backend/dockge-server.ts:540

    /**
     * Get the current offset
     * @returns {string} Time offset
     */
    getTimezoneOffset() {
        return dayjs().format("Z");
    }

    /**
     * Throw an error if the timezone is invalid
     * @param {string} timezone Timezone to test
     * @returns {void}
     * @throws The timezone is invalid
     */
    checkTimezone(timezone : string) {
        try {
            dayjs.utc("2013-11-18 11:55").tz(timezone).format();
        } catch (e) {
            throw new Error("Invalid timezone:" + timezone);
        }
    }

    /**
     * Initialize the data directory
     */
    initDataDir() {
        if (! fs.existsSync(this.config.dataDir)) {
            fs.mkdirSync(this.config.dataDir, { recursive: true });
        }

        // Check if a directory
        if (!fs.lstatSync(this.config.dataDir).isDirectory()) {
            throw new Error(`Fatal error: ${this.config.dataDir} is not a directory`);
        }

        // Create data/stacks directory
        if (!fs.existsSync(this.stacksDir)) {

View on GitHub (pinned to f809ae192b)

Solutions

1. Pass a valid IANA timezone name such as 'Europe/Berlin' or 'Asia/Tokyo'
2. For fixed offsets, map them to Etc/GMT zones, e.g. UTC+8 -> 'Etc/GMT-8' (inverted sign)
3. Trim whitespace from user-supplied timezone strings
4. Verify the deployment image includes tzdata (alpine: add tzdata package)

Example fix

// before
checkTimezone("UTC+2");
// after
checkTimezone(Intl.DateTimeFormat().resolvedOptions().timeZone); // e.g. "Europe/Paris"

function isValidIANATimezone(tz) {
  if (typeof tz !== "string" || !tz.trim()) return false;
  try { new Intl.DateTimeFormat("en-US", { timeZone: tz }); return true; } catch { return false; }
}
if (!isValidIANATimezone(tz)) tz = "Etc/UTC";
socket.emit("...", { timezone: tz });

function isTimezone(v: unknown): v is string { return typeof v === "string" && (() => { try { new Intl.DateTimeFormat("en-US", { timeZone: v }); return true; } catch { return false; } })(); }

try { server.getTimezone(tz); } catch (e) { if (String(e.message).startsWith("Invalid timezone")) { return "Etc/UTC"; } throw e; }

When it happens

Trigger: Calling getTimezone/checkTimezone with e.g. 'UTC+2', 'GMT-5', 'CET', an empty string, or a misspelled IANA name like 'Europe/Berlin ' with trailing space.

Common situations: Client sends a browser locale string instead of an IANA zone; fixed-offset strings like UTC+8 that are not IANA names; server missing timezone data so even valid names throw; dayjs timezone plugin not properly extended in a custom build.

Related errors

• Name must be a string
• Stack name must be a string
• Stack name and service name must be strings
• Invalid stackName or serviceName
• Compose YAML must be a string

AI-assisted analysis of louislam/dockge@f809ae192b (2026-08-31). Data as JSON: /api/errors/bd4c88c342f5abbf. Report an issue: GitHub.