Combating Dockerfile Flakiness
The first systematic approach to detect and repair unpredictable Docker build failures
Research revealing how Dockerfile flakiness - unpredictable build failures caused by external dependencies - affects 10% of Dockerized projects, with a novel solution to improve deployment reliability.
- First comprehensive study analyzing 8,132 Dockerized projects over 9 months
- Identified that flakiness occurs without modifications to the Dockerfile itself
- Developed FLAKIDOCK, an automated tool to detect and repair flaky builds
- Provides practical solutions to a previously understudied engineering challenge
This research addresses critical deployment reliability concerns for Engineering teams by reducing debugging overhead and improving container build stability across evolving environments.