/etc/timezone is a directory not a file?

I use Manjaro minimal arm iso on a Rock64 to start a openhab debian docker.

Openhab wants to synchronize time, so it should be started with

docker run \
  --name openhab \
  --net=host \
  -v /etc/localtime:/etc/localtime:ro \
  -v /etc/timezone:/etc/timezone:ro \
  -v openhab_addons:/openhab/addons \

but /etc/timezone in Manjaro is a directory (or the directory was created by docker?) - not a file so I get, when I want to start the docker:

Error response from daemon: failed to create shim task: OCI runtime create failed: runc create failed: unable to start container process: error during container init: error mounting "/etc/timezone" to rootfs at "/etc/timezone": mount /etc/timezone:/etc/timezone (via /proc/self/fd/6), flags: 0x5001: not a directory: unknown: Are you trying to mount a directory onto a file (or vice-versa)? Check if the specified host path exists and is the expected type
Error: failed to start containers: 5bc5712efcfe

Ok I created a file /etc/timezone and deleted the directory, which was empty - but was this correct, or shall I link it somewhere else?

I’m pretty sure we don’t supply the /etc/timezone file/folder. So not sure how you got it.

If so, then your docker command created it for you and obviously it’s empty.

no - I created it with “cat > timezone” and it works now, but my question is, will it be deleted during updates? Is there another way to link it, that debian and openhab are satisfied??

It’s not part of any package, so it’ll not be deleted. If at some point into the future, a package wants to overwrite this file, you’ll get a warning during the upgrade which you need to confirm manually.

I dont know, if the lack of /etc/timezone is only Manjaro ARM or general Arch. I am using Linux since 1995 and I think, there was always /etc/timezone - even in Arch.
As docker and Java needs this file, I think, it would be cool, to keep it also in future - I think, it should not be so difficult and its not heavy…


https://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/452559/what-is-etc-timezone-used-for