How to install and use Docker Compose

When I started playing with Docker, I ran many commands to build images, delete old containers and run new ones. It involved long commands with links, volumes, and other flags.

I searched for a way to automate these tasks and discovered docker-compose.

Installation

You can install Docker Compose along with Docker Desktop or as a standalone plugin. The recommended approach is to get it with Docker Desktop for your OS¹.

Once installed, you can enable Bash completions. Run it as root to make configuration global for all users:

curl -L https://raw.githubusercontent.com/docker/compose/v2/contrib/completion/bash/docker-compose -o /etc/bash_completion.d/docker-compose

Configuration

Next, prepare a docker-compose.yaml file. Here is an example:

services:
  web:
    build: .
    command: php -S 0.0.0.0:8000 -t /code
    ports:
      - "8000:8000"
    volumes:
      - .:/code
    depends_on:
      - db
  db:
    image: mysql:8.0
    environment:
      MYSQL_DATABASE: wordpress
      MYSQL_ROOT_PASSWORD: your_password

You can find more information about the docker-compose.yaml syntax in the official documentation².

Usage

Run the environment with:

docker compose up

Or, to run it in the background (detached mode):

docker compose up -d

To stop the services and remove the containers, networks, and volumes, use:

docker compose down -v

Other useful commands include:

docker compose build --force-rm # Rebuild images and clean up
docker compose ps               # List containers

I’m still exploring what’s possible with volumes, but I don’t have anything interesting enough to add yet-maybe later.