MariaDB docker-compose with UTF8 Collation

docker-compose.yaml

version: '3.1'

services:

  db:
    image: mariadb
    restart: always
    command: mysqld --character-set-server=utf8 --collation-server=utf8_unicode_ci --init-connect='SET NAMES UTF8;' --innodb-flush-log-at-trx-commit=0
    ports:
      - 3306:3306
    environment:
      - MYSQL_ROOT_PASSWORD=example
      - MYSQL_DATABASE=test
      - MYSQL_USER=testuser
      - MYSQL_PASSWORD=testpassword

This doesn't work for me for any magic reason. My tables collations and collation of connection is still latin1_swedish_ci, although collation_server is utf8_unicode_ci. I solved it by setting this options to mysql config file directly (my.cnf).

my.cnf:

[mysqld]
init_connect=‘SET collation_connection = utf8_unicode_ci’
character-set-server = utf8
collation-server = utf8_unicode_ci

[client]
default-character-set = utf8

docker-compose.yml:

version: '3.1'

services:

  db:
    image: mariadb
    restart: always
    ports:
      - 3306:3306
    environment:
      - MYSQL_ROOT_PASSWORD=example
      - MYSQL_DATABASE=test
      - MYSQL_USER=testuser
      - MYSQL_PASSWORD=testpassword
    volumes:
      - ./my.cnf:/etc/mysql/my.cnf

p.s. my.cnf is placed near docker-compose.yml in this example. You can put it in another folder, but you should change path in volumes part

This didn't work for me sadly, first method just causes the container to fail with Can't create test file /opt/bitnami/mariadb/data/97647bac093c.lower-test. Second method has no effect.

I have a UTF-8 SQL dump that includes emojis.

Try using the image mariadb as described in gist. Bitnami could have some customization, which might be incompatible with example above

does not work for me

2024-09-02 09:01:44+00:00 [Note] [Entrypoint]: Entrypoint script for MariaDB Server 1:11.5.2+maria~ubu2404 started.
2024-09-02 09:01:44+00:00 [ERROR] [Entrypoint]: mariadbd failed while attempting to check config
	command was: mysqld --character-set-server=utf8 --collation-server=utf8_unicode_ci --init-connect=SET NAMES UTF8; --innodb-flush-log-at-trx-commit=0 --verbose --help
	/usr/local/bin/docker-entrypoint.sh: line 105: mysqld: command not found
2024-09-02 09:01:45+00:00 [Note] [Entrypoint]: Entrypoint script for MariaDB Server 1:11.5.2+maria~ubu2404 started.
2024-09-02 09:01:45+00:00 [ERROR] [Entrypoint]: mariadbd failed while attempting to check config
	command was: mysqld --character-set-server=utf8 --collation-server=utf8_unicode_ci --init-connect=SET NAMES UTF8; --innodb-flush-log-at-trx-commit=0 --verbose --help
	/usr/local/bin/docker-entrypoint.sh: line 105: mysqld: command not found
2024-09-02 09:01:46+00:00 [Note] [Entrypoint]: Entrypoint script for MariaDB Server 1:11.5.2+maria~ubu2404 started.
2024-09-02 09:01:46+00:00 [ERROR] [Entrypoint]: mariadbd failed while attempting to check config
	command was: mysqld --character-set-server=utf8 --collation-server=utf8_unicode_ci --init-connect=SET NAMES UTF8; --innodb-flush-log-at-trx-commit=0 --verbose --help
	/usr/local/bin/docker-entrypoint.sh: line 105: mysqld: command not found
2024-09-02 09:01:47+00:00 [Note] [Entrypoint]: Entrypoint script for MariaDB Server 1:11.5.2+maria~ubu2404 started.
2024-09-02 09:01:47+00:00 [ERROR] [Entrypoint]: mariadbd failed while attempting to check config
	command was: mysqld --character-set-server=utf8 --collation-server=utf8_unicode_ci --init-connect=SET NAMES UTF8; --innodb-flush-log-at-trx-commit=0 --verbose --help
	/usr/local/bin/docker-entrypoint.sh: line 105: mysqld: command not found
2024-09-02 09:01:48+00:00 [Note] [Entrypoint]: Entrypoint script for MariaDB Server 1:11.5.2+maria~ubu2404 started.
2024-09-02 09:01:48+00:00 [ERROR] [Entrypoint]: mariadbd failed while attempting to check config
	command was: mysqld --character-set-server=utf8 --collation-server=utf8_unicode_ci --init-connect=SET NAMES UTF8; --innodb-flush-log-at-trx-commit=0 --verbose --help
	/usr/local/bin/docker-entrypoint.sh: line 105: mysqld: command not found
2024-09-02 09:01:50+00:00 [Note] [Entrypoint]: Entrypoint script for MariaDB Server 1:11.5.2+maria~ubu2404 started.
2024-09-02 09:01:50+00:00 [ERROR] [Entrypoint]: mariadbd failed while attempting to check config
	command was: mysqld --character-set-server=utf8 --collation-server=utf8_unicode_ci --init-connect=SET NAMES UTF8; --innodb-flush-log-at-trx-commit=0 --verbose --help
	/usr/local/bin/docker-entrypoint.sh: line 105: mysqld: command not found
2024-09-02 09:01:54+00:00 [Note] [Entrypoint]: Entrypoint script for MariaDB Server 1:11.5.2+maria~ubu2404 started.
2024-09-02 09:01:54+00:00 [ERROR] [Entrypoint]: mariadbd failed while attempting to check config
	command was: mysqld --character-set-server=utf8 --collation-server=utf8_unicode_ci --init-connect=SET NAMES UTF8; --innodb-flush-log-at-trx-commit=0 --verbose --help
	/usr/local/bin/docker-entrypoint.sh: line 105: mysqld: command not found
2024-09-02 09:02:01+00:00 [Note] [Entrypoint]: Entrypoint script for MariaDB Server 1:11.5.2+maria~ubu2404 started.
2024-09-02 09:02:01+00:00 [ERROR] [Entrypoint]: mariadbd failed while attempting to check config
	command was: mysqld --character-set-server=utf8 --collation-server=utf8_unicode_ci --init-connect=SET NAMES UTF8; --innodb-flush-log-at-trx-commit=0 --verbose --help
	/usr/local/bin/docker-entrypoint.sh: line 105: mysqld: command not found
2024-09-02 09:02:14+00:00 [Note] [Entrypoint]: Entrypoint script for MariaDB Server 1:11.5.2+maria~ubu2404 started.
2024-09-02 09:02:14+00:00 [ERROR] [Entrypoint]: mariadbd failed while attempting to check config
	command was: mysqld --character-set-server=utf8 --collation-server=utf8_unicode_ci --init-connect=SET NAMES UTF8; --innodb-flush-log-at-trx-commit=0 --verbose --help
	/usr/local/bin/docker-entrypoint.sh: line 105: mysqld: command not found

the mariadb docker image doesn't use 'mysqld' as a startingpoint, but 'mariadbd'.
(the same is for the client, it isn't 'mysql', but 'mariadb')

appending command: mysqld --character-set-server=utf8mb4 --collation-server=utf8mb4_unicode_ci to the docker file won't work.
command: mariadbd --character-set-server=utf8mb4 --collation-server=utf8mb4_unicode_ci will work.

Better is to use the line below; it works both on mariadb and mysql.
command: ['--character-set-server=utf8mb4', '--collation-server=utf8mb4_unicode_ci']

This doesn't work for me for any magic reason. My tables collations and collation of connection is still latin1_swedish_ci, although collation_server is utf8_unicode_ci. I solved it by setting this options to mysql config file directly (my.cnf).

my.cnf:

[mysqld]
init_connect=‘SET collation_connection = utf8_unicode_ci’
character-set-server = utf8
collation-server = utf8_unicode_ci

[client]
default-character-set = utf8

docker-compose.yml:

version: '3.1'

services:

  db:
    image: mariadb
    restart: always
    ports:
      - 3306:3306
    environment:
      - MYSQL_ROOT_PASSWORD=example
      - MYSQL_DATABASE=test
      - MYSQL_USER=testuser
      - MYSQL_PASSWORD=testpassword
    volumes:
      - ./my.cnf:/etc/mysql/my.cnf

p.s. my.cnf is placed near docker-compose.yml in this example. You can put it in another folder, but you should change path in volumes part

This worked for me too. Just a little note, you need to use SINGLE QUOTES around for the line init_connect=‘SET collation_connection = utf8_unicode_ci’. Thanks mate.