Unifying the Dockerfile folder structure among IaC clouds

[frozentank]

I'm suggesting unifying the folder structure of the different cloud providers' (Azure, GCP, AWS) so that instead of the entrypoint being /viya4-iac-azure/docker-entrypoint.sh it would be something like /viya4-iac/docker-entrypoint.sh. This helps in a few different ways, but the concern is a situation where running the container doesn't honor the entrypoint setting. This is a problem with that particular container platform (Github Actions Jobs in Containers) but the directory structure of the repositories compound the problem. I think it could be fairly straightforward change to the different code bases. I have an alternate Dockerfile for each repository for building the container but I'd prefer to use the OOB experience as much as possible. Especially since CLI tools and Terraform version bumps mean I have to maintain each Dockerfile in sync.

The only concern I have with making that kind of change would be breaking any current pipelines. Technically, the current documentation is not referencing this directory structure and only the scenario I have would be impacted.

[saschjmil]

Hey @frozentank, thanks for the suggestion! Like you pointed out in your last paragraph, I'd be worried about breaking current users. I've been trying to think of ways that we could implement this without any disruption.

My current thought is to use Docker build --build-arg's. We could create a new parameter named project_root_directory. It would default to the project's /viya4-iac-xxx/ to prevent any disruption. This gives the user the option to provide their own root directory (/viya4-iac in your example). We might need to update the entrypoint script as well.

For example:

# Creates the image with the root being /viya4-iac-azure. Preserves original behavior
 docker build -t viya4-iac-azure:latest .

# Creates the image with the root being /viya4-iac
 docker build --build-arg project_root_directory=/viya4-iac -t viya4-iac-azure:latest .

What are your thoughts on that?

[frozentank]

I think that could work well as a balance between both options.

[frozentank]

Do we want to open this as a community driven enhancement?