(Robin Tunney has been working as a DevSecOps engineer in an IT company located in...

HashiCorp Packer is an image automation tool that uses the packer build command to create machine images from configuration files written in HCL or JSON. When Robin defines her Docker image configuration in the file docker-ubuntu.pkr.hcl, the correct way to initiate the build process is by running packer build docker-ubuntu.pkr.hcl. This command reads the configuration file, initializes required plugins, executes defined builders and provisioners, and produces the final Docker image. The other options are syntactically incorrect because Packer does not support abbreviated flags such as -b or alternative verbs like -build. Building container images during the Build and Test stage ensures that images are reproducible, standardized, and compliant with organizational security requirements before deployment. Using Packer also supports immutability and reduces configuration drift, which are key principles in secure DevSecOps pipelines.

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