What is a docker-compose.yml file?
A docker-compose.yml is a config file for Docker Compose.
It allows to deploy, combine, and configure multiple docker containers at the same time. The Docker "rule" is to outsource every single process to its own Docker container.
Take for example a simple web application: You need a server, a database, and PHP. So you can set three docker containers with Apache2, PHP, and MySQL.
The advantage of Docker Compose is easy configuration. You don't have to write a big bunch of commands into Bash. You can predefine it in the docker-compose.yml:
db:
image: mysql
ports:
- "3306:3306"
environment:
MYSQL_DATABASE: example_db
MYSQL_USER: root
MYSQL_PASSWORD: rootpw
php:
image: php
ports:
- "80:80"
- "443:443"
volumes:
- ./SRC:/var/www/
links:
- db
As you can see in my example, I define port forwarding, volumes for external data, and links to the other Docker container. It's fast, reproducible, and not that hard to understand.
The Docker Compose file format is formally specified which enables docker-compose.yml files being executed with something else than Docker, Podman for example.
Docker Compose is a tool that allows you to deploy and manage multiple containers at the same time.
A docker-compose.yml
file contains instructions on how to do that.
In this file, you instruct Docker Compose for example to:
- From where to take the
Dockerfile
to build a particular image - Which ports you want to expose
- How to link containers
- Which ports you want to bind to the host machine
Docker Compose reads that file and executes commands.
It is used instead of all optional parameters when building and running a single docker container.
Example:
version: '2'
services:
nginx:
build: ./nginx
links:
- django:django
- angular:angular
ports:
- "80:80"
- "8000:8000"
- "443:443"
networks:
- my_net
django:
build: ./django
expose:
- "8000"
networks:
- my_net
angular:
build: ./angular2
links:
- django:django
expose:
- "80"
networks:
- my_net
networks:
my_net:
external:
name: my_net
This example instructs Docker Compose to:
- Build
nginx
from path ./nginx - Links
angular
anddjango
containers (so their IP in the Docker network is resolved by name) - Binds ports
80
,443
,8000
to the host machine - Add it to network
my_net
(so all 3 containers are in the same network and therefore accessible from each other)
Then something similar is done for the django
and angular
containers.
If you would use just Docker commands, it would be something like:
docker build --name nginx .
docker run --link django:django angular:angular --expose 80 443 8000 --net my_net nginx
So while you probably don't want to type all these options and commands for each image/container, you can write a docker-compose.yml
file in which you write all these instructions in a human-readable format.