BuildBox

# BuildBox container

BuildBox runs in Docker container to isolate build environment from host system. This container runs privilegied.

BuildBox container

The container is dedicated to a single project: one project, one container. The container is named bbx-<project_basename>-<hash> where <hash> is derived from the project root path, ensuring unicity per project location.

The project directory is mounted into the container at the same absolute path. BuildBox sources are also mounted into the container, so they can be updated without recreating the container.

The BuildBox user UID and GID are mapped on host user identifiers.

Required build files are located in the docker directory:

  • Dockerfile,
  • bin/bbx: BuildBox host-side launcher, used to manage the container and run commands,
  • entrypoint.sh: container entry point, to map UID / GID from host user.

# Dockerfile

The Dockerfile is used to build the container starting from an ArchLinux (opens new window) base.

In this file, all required packages are declared. The prefered installation method is pacman, but pip is possible for Python packages.

# Build new image

Every time Dockerfile is updated, a new image has to be built.

From BuildBox sources docker/ directory, run:

docker build --network="host" --no-cache --pull -t buildbox .

It creates a buildbox:latest image. You can tag it with:

docker tag buildbox:latest buildbox:M.m.r

The tag, M.m.r, should follow BuildBox last version tag.

To start testing your changes with the newly created local image, stop any running project container using bbx stop, then run bbx from the project directory, it will pick up the new image.

Once everything is right, the local image can be pushed remotely to be used by BuildBox users. By conviention, used BuildBox sources are tagged with docker_M.m.r.

# TTY USB devices

To deal with USB TTY devices from BuildBox container, there are two involved mechanisms:

  • udev, to trigger events,
  • buildbox_tty_usb_sync tool, located in BuildBox sources docker/bin directory.

This last tool is responsible of devices nodes synchronization between host and BuildBox container. It is triggered by host-side udev rules (see TTY USB devices settings).

Logs are written to syslog. Assuming your system logs are readable through journalctl, you can read them with:

journalctl -f -g "Buildbox USB TTY sync"

and you can see lines line this when a device is plugged:

oct. 09 17:56:29 darkknight buildbox_tty_usb_sync[2346574]: Buildbox USB TTY sync: added /dev/bus/usb/001/120 (189:119)
oct. 09 17:56:30 darkknight buildbox_tty_usb_sync[2346574]: Buildbox USB TTY sync: added /dev/ttyUSB0 (188:0)

and like this when a device is removed:

oct. 09 17:56:33 darkknight buildbox_tty_usb_sync[2346823]: Buildbox USB TTY sync: removed /dev/bus/usb/001/120
oct. 09 17:56:33 darkknight buildbox_tty_usb_sync[2346823]: Buildbox USB TTY sync: removed /dev/ttyUSB0

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