Docker-compose sits on top of docker and creates high-level abstractions - services composed of a number of Docker containers, setting parameters that would otherwise be passed to Docker on the command-line:
- Names of images
- Names of containers
- Environment variables
- Port bindings
- Volume bindings
- Container links
- ... and other tweaks
In our deployments, customizable parameters are in separate environment variable files referenced from the docker-compose files.
Once you customize the variables (the env_file makes them separate from the code), you can then:
-
Start everything up (interactively) and watch the console:
docker-compose up
-
Cancel this session with Ctrl-C
-
Start again in the background (detached):
docker-compose up -d
-
Watch the logs with:
docker-compose logs
(and again escape with Ctrl-C - this time just detaching)
-
Stop and remove the containers:
docker-compose stop docker-compose rm -f -v
-
Up again:
docker-compose up
-
Fetch updated images:
docker-compose pull
-
Update (re-create) the running containers:
docker-compose up
Note: docker-compose up
updates (re-creates) the container whenever anything changes, otherwise just make sure the container is started. So if a new image is ready (pulled) or the environment variables file has changed, it would get re-created.