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Docker-Compose commands

- Command 1: docker-compose build​

docker-compose build

Description:

Services are built once and then tagged, by default as project_service.
If the Compose file specifies an image name (i.e. services: my-service-name: image: some-name), the image is tagged with that name, substituting any variables beforehand. See variable interpolation.

Commonly used flags:

  • Flag 1: --no-cache
    Prevent caching when building the image.

  • Flag 2: -f | --file
    Actually, the -f flag belongs to docker-compose command, so it's actually use before the sub-command:

    docker-compose -f ./path/to/docker-compose.yaml build

  • Flag 3: -t
    A flag used for tagging the image. With docker, we had no way for tagging our image within the Dockerfile. We had to do so using the -t flag, and then providing the tag for the image. With docker-compose, we can have tags in our docker-compose file, so it basically rendered null the use for the -t flag, but it still can be used to override whatever is in the docker-compose file.

- Command 2: docker-compose up​

docker-compose up
note

Flags for this command MUST appear AFTER the up command!
Example:

docker-compose up -d --build

Description:

...

Commonly used flags:

  • Flag 1: -d
    Run in detached mode.

  • Flag 2: --build
    Force a re-build. Meaning, create a new image and THEN, run a container from it. Don't use an existing image.

- Command 3: docker-compose down​

docker-compose down

Description:

This command stops and removes an application's containers (is it?).

- Command 4: docker-compose ps​

docker-compose ps

Description:

Show all running containers relevant to the current application.

The command docker-compose ps shows you all the running containers relevant to THIS APPLICATION. This is in contrast to running it "cousin", docker ps, which shows you all the running containers, across ALL APPLICATIONS.