Docker Compose Reference Docs⚑
Overview of docker-compose CLI⚑
Estimated reading time: 5 minutes
This page provides the usage information for the docker-compose Command.
Command options overview and help⚑
You can also see this information by running docker-compose --help from the command line.
Define and run multi-container applications with Docker.
Usage:
docker-compose [-f <arg>...] [--profile <name>...] [options] [COMMAND] [ARGS...]
docker-compose -h|--help
Options:
-f, --file FILE Specify an alternate compose file
(default: docker-compose.yml)
-p, --project-name NAME Specify an alternate project name
(default: directory name)
--profile NAME Specify a profile to enable
--verbose Show more output
--log-level LEVEL Set log level (DEBUG, INFO, WARNING, ERROR, CRITICAL)
--no-ansi Do not print ANSI control characters
-v, --version Print version and exit
-H, --host HOST Daemon socket to connect to
--tls Use TLS; implied by --tlsverify
--tlscacert CA_PATH Trust certs signed only by this CA
--tlscert CLIENT_CERT_PATH Path to TLS certificate file
--tlskey TLS_KEY_PATH Path to TLS key file
--tlsverify Use TLS and verify the remote
--skip-hostname-check Don't check the daemon's hostname against the
name specified in the client certificate
--project-directory PATH Specify an alternate working directory
(default: the path of the Compose file)
--compatibility If set, Compose will attempt to convert deploy
keys in v3 files to their non-Swarm equivalent
Commands:
build Build or rebuild services
bundle Generate a Docker bundle from the Compose file
config Validate and view the Compose file
create Create services
down Stop and remove containers, networks, images, and volumes
events Receive real time events from containers
exec Execute a command in a running container
help Get help on a command
images List images
kill Kill containers
logs View output from containers
pause Pause services
port Print the public port for a port binding
ps List containers
pull Pull service images
push Push service images
restart Restart services
rm Remove stopped containers
run Run a one-off command
scale Set number of containers for a service
start Start services
stop Stop services
top Display the running processes
unpause Unpause services
up Create and start containers
version Show the Docker-Compose version information
You can use Docker Compose binary, docker-compose [-f <arg>...] [options] [COMMAND] [ARGS...], to build and manage multiple services in Docker containers.
Use -f to specify name and path of one or more Compose files⚑
Use the -f flag to specify the location of a Compose configuration file.
Specifying multiple Compose files⚑
You can supply multiple -f configuration files. When you supply multiple files, Compose combines them into a single configuration. Compose builds the configuration in the order you supply the files. Subsequent files override and add to their predecessors.
For example, consider this command line:
$ docker-compose -f docker-compose.yml -f docker-compose.admin.yml run backup_db
The docker-compose.yml file might specify a webapp service.
webapp:
image: examples/web
ports:
- "8000:8000"
volumes:
- "/data"
If the docker-compose.admin.yml also specifies this same service, any matching fields override the previous file. New values, add to the webapp service configuration.
webapp:
build: .
environment:
- DEBUG=1
When you use multiple Compose files, all paths in the files are relative to the first configuration file specified with -f. You can use the --project-directory option to override this base path.
Use a -f with - (dash) as the filename to read the configuration from stdin. When stdin is used all paths in the configuration are relative to the current working directory.
The -f flag is optional. If you don’t provide this flag on the command line, Compose traverses the working directory and its parent directories looking for a docker-compose.yml and a docker-compose.override.yml file. You must supply at least the docker-compose.yml file. If both files are present on the same directory level, Compose combines the two files into a single configuration.
The configuration in the docker-compose.override.yml file is applied over and in addition to the values in the docker-compose.yml file.
Specifying a path to a single Compose file⚑
You can use the -f flag to specify a path to a Compose file that is not located in the current directory, either from the command line or by setting up a COMPOSE_FILE environment variable in your shell or in an environment file.
For an example of using the -f option at the command line, suppose you are running the Compose Rails sample, and have a docker-compose.yml file in a directory called sandbox/rails. You can use a command like docker-compose pull to get the postgres image for the db service from anywhere by using the -f flag as follows: docker-compose -f ~/sandbox/rails/docker-compose.yml pull db
Here’s the full example:
$ docker-compose -f ~/sandbox/rails/docker-compose.yml pull db
Pulling db (postgres:latest)...
latest: Pulling from library/postgres
ef0380f84d05: Pull complete
50cf91dc1db8: Pull complete
d3add4cd115c: Pull complete
467830d8a616: Pull complete
089b9db7dc57: Pull complete
6fba0a36935c: Pull complete
81ef0e73c953: Pull complete
338a6c4894dc: Pull complete
15853f32f67c: Pull complete
044c83d92898: Pull complete
17301519f133: Pull complete
dcca70822752: Pull complete
cecf11b8ccf3: Pull complete
Digest: sha256:1364924c753d5ff7e2260cd34dc4ba05ebd40ee8193391220be0f9901d4e1651
Status: Downloaded newer image for postgres:latest
Use -p to specify a project name⚑
Each configuration has a project name. If you supply a -p flag, you can specify a project name. If you don’t specify the flag, Compose uses the current directory name. See also the COMPOSE_PROJECT_NAME environment variable.
Use --profile to specify one or more active profiles⚑
Calling docker-compose --profile frontend up will start the services with the profile frontend and services without specified profiles. You can also enable multiple profiles, e.g. with docker-compose --profile frontend --profile debug up the profiles frontend and debug will be enabled.
See also Using profiles with Compose and the COMPOSE_PROFILES environment variable.
Set up environment variables⚑
You can set environment variables for various docker-compose options, including the -f and -p flags.
For example, the COMPOSE_FILE environment variable relates to the -f flag, and COMPOSE_PROJECT_NAME environment variable relates to the -p flag.
Also, you can set some of these variables in an environment file.
Where to go next⚑
fig, composition, compose, docker, orchestration, cli, reference, docker-compose
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