How to "docker-compose up" for images from Docker Hub

Question

Is it possible to pull and start all containers defined in docker-compose.yml? I'm trying to execute docker-compose up -d my/image, where my/image is a repo on DockerHub, but it says "Can't find docker-compose.yml". I also tried first to pull the image using docker pull my/image with the same result

UPD: The image https://hub.docker.com/r/gplcart/core/, source - https://github.com/gplcart/docker-core

SOLVED: It seems docker-compose does not work that way I want. I need to create a directory manually, place docker-compose.yml there, then run docker-compose up.

https://docs.docker.com/compose/wordpress/#define-the-project

I expected that running docker-compose up -d repo/image is enough to download and run all defined containers

Answer 1

Make sure docker and docker-compose binaries coming from the same package manager. E.g.

$ which -a docker docker-compose
/snap/bin/docker
/snap/bin/docker-compose

In other words, if you've installed Docker from a Snap, docker-compose binary should be already included (ls /snap/docker/current/bin/). When using Apt repository, docker-compose can be installed separately, so don't interchange binaries between Snap with Apt, as well don't mix docker with docker.io package on Apt.

Answer 2

Here is the simplest working example of docker-compose.yml file:

version: '3'
services:
  hello-world:
    image: hello-world

Which should produce the following results:

$ docker-compose up
Creating network "docker_default" with the default driver
Creating docker_hello-world_1 ... done
Attaching to docker_hello-world_1
hello-world_1  |
hello-world_1  | Hello from Docker!
hello-world_1  | This message shows that your installation appears to be working correctly.
hello-world_1  |
hello-world_1  | To generate this message, Docker took the following steps:
hello-world_1  |  1. The Docker client contacted the Docker daemon.
hello-world_1  |  2. The Docker daemon pulled the "hello-world" image from the Docker Hub.
hello-world_1  |     (amd64)
hello-world_1  |  3. The Docker daemon created a new container from that image which runs the
hello-world_1  |     executable that produces the output you are currently reading.
hello-world_1  |  4. The Docker daemon streamed that output to the Docker client, which sent it
hello-world_1  |     to your terminal.
hello-world_1  |
hello-world_1  | To try something more ambitious, you can run an Ubuntu container with:
hello-world_1  |  $ docker run -it ubuntu bash
hello-world_1  |
hello-world_1  | Share images, automate workflows, and more with a free Docker ID:
hello-world_1  |  https://hub.docker.com/
hello-world_1  |
hello-world_1  | For more examples and ideas, visit:
hello-world_1  |  https://docs.docker.com/get-started/
hello-world_1  |
docker_hello-world_1 exited with code 0

In case of problems, use the following commands which can help to track down the problem:

• docker-compose config - Validate configuration file.
• docker-compose logs - Check the latest logs.
• docker info - Check system-wide information.
• sudo strace -fe network docker-compose up - Debug the network issues.
• journalctl -u docker.service - Check the logs of Docker service.

Answer 3

Try logging in to Docker Hub so that Docker Compose knows you want to pull images from there.

From the command line ...

docker login

You will be prompted for a username and password. Once authenticated, compose should pull your images from Docker Hub when running docker-compose up.

Also, you need to run docker-compose up from the same directory where your docker-compose.yml file is. Looking at your docker-compose.yml file on Github, it looks like you are missing a few lines. You need to specify the version, and gplcart, db and phpmyadmin should be under services.

version: '3'
services:
  gplcart:
    build: .
    links:
      - db
    ports:
      - 8080:80
  db:
    image: mariadb:10.2
    environment:
      MYSQL_DATABASE: test
      MYSQL_ROOT_PASSWORD: test
    ports:
      - 3306:3306
  phpmyadmin:
    image: phpmyadmin/phpmyadmin:4.7
    links:
      - db
    ports:
      - 8181:80

Answer 4

docker-compose acts based on your local docker-compose.yml file. Pulling a third-party image with docker-compose is usually useful when, instead of executing separate docker commands (in order to pull an image or deploy your app, etc etc), you want to define your architecture in a more structured way like:

My docker-compose.yml file:

version: '3'

services:

    containerA:
        image: gplcart/core

    containerB:
        build: .
        # go on defining the rest ...

and deploying with:

docker-compose build && docker-compose up -d

Answer 5

The error Can't find docker-compose.yml indicates that you are not currently in the directory with your docker-compose.yml file, or that you have named the file something different. If you have named the file something different, including a different case or extension, you can either rename the file, or run docker-compose -f your_filename.yml up to pass a different file for docker-compose to parse. If you are not in the directory, make sure to cd into that directory before running docker-compose commands.

Answer 6

To pull an image use docker-compose pull <service_name>, where service_name is one of the services listed in your docker-compose.yml file

The docker pull my/image fails, but should fail with a different error than you noted (you posted a compose error)

In your example, my/name is not a valid service name because you can't use a / in the service name. Compose would give you a different error.

It's unclear to me what my/name represents (assuming you replaced it with something locally).

If you post your docker-compose.yml it would help determine what the correct docker and docker-compose commands should be.