docker-compose up, down, stop start difference

Following are the differences among various docker-compose command options:

docker-compose up - start and restart all the services defined in docker-compose.yml

docker-compose down - command will stop running containers, but it also removes the stopped containers as well as any networks that were created. You can take down one step further and add the -v flag to remove all volumes too. This is great for doing a full blown reset on your environment by running docker-compose down -v.

docker-compose start - command will only restart containers stopped previously

docker-compose stop - command will stop running containers but won’t remove them

# Stop services only
docker-compose stop

# Stop and remove containers, networks..
docker-compose down 

# Down and remove volumes
docker-compose down --volumes 

# Down and remove images
docker-compose down --rmi <all|local> 

In docker-compose help

stop               Stop services

down               Stop and remove containers and networks (optionally images and volumes as well)