Background

For each build, buildbot starts by building the Docker image corresponding to the build environment. Each build environment is defined in a Dockerfile. This means that any image creation failure automatically translates into a failed build in buildbot. In order to mitigate this aspect, Buildbot should use pre-build images. In this way, any changes to the Dockerfile can be independently validated before being used by buildbot.

Proposed workflow

Step 1 - Define a consistent name scheme for pre-build images
Step 2 - Create a Docker registry that contains all images used by Buildbot
Step 3 - Change buildbot config to use pre-build images
Step 4 - Start templating dockerfiles and clearly define MariaDB server build requirements
Step 5 - Automatically rebuild all the Dockerfiles from time to time
Step 6 - Ensure an automated way to update images on all worker machines used by buildbot