CODEWITHSUNDEEP
dockerdocker-compose
Ondra K.
Ondra K.

Reputation: 3107

Import docker compose file in another compose file

Is it possible to "import" or link a docker-compose file into another docker-compose file?

Suppose I have two files:

# docker-compose-1.yml
services:
    A:
        # config
    B:
        # config

# docker-compose-2.yml
services:
    C:
        # config
    import: docker-compose-1.yml

By running docker-compose -f docker-compose-2.yml up, I would like to start containers A, B (specified in the imported file) and C. Is this possible, without having to link both files with the -f parameter?

Upvotes: 86

Views: 60272

Answers (2)

Mehdi Hosseini
Mehdi Hosseini

Reputation: 2157

By extending

It's possible to extend or use multiple docker-compose files and their services and link them in just one file. You can take a look at this link to understand how is the other usages of multiple compose files. But you can't include the file yet without linking related files together as you mentioned.

Here, I defined a common-services.yaml:

version: '2'
services:
  nginx_a:
    image: nginx:latest
    container_name: nginx
    ports:
      - 81:80
      - 1443:443

And then, I created a docker-compose.yml and included the common-services.yml file and its own service as well.

services:
  nginx:
    extends:
      file: common-services.yml
      service: nginx_a

  nginx_b:
    image: nginx:latest
    container_name: nginx_b
    ports:
      - 82:80
      - 2443:443

By .env technique

And if you want to avoid chaining usage of multiple files, there is also a technique with .env files. I will rewrite the previous example with .env technique.

COMPOSE_PATH_SEPARATOR=:
COMPOSE_FILE=common-services.yml:docker-compose.yml

Let's add another service as an example in the common-services.yml

version: '2'
services:
  ngin_a:
    image: nginx:latest
    container_name: nginx_a
    ports:
      - 81:80
      - 1443:443

  redis_c:
    image: redis:latest
    container_name: redis_c
    ports:
      - 6381:6380

And finally, load all of them in the docker-compose file without even mention to those services.

version: '2'
services:
  nginx_b:
    image: nginx:latest
    container_name: nginx_b
    ports:
      - 82:80
      - 2443:443
    env_file:
      - .env

In the end, you will have three running services.

Upvotes: 74

Harsh Manvar
Harsh Manvar

Reputation: 30170

Docker Compose top-level element include

include is available in Docker Compose version 2.20 and later, and Docker Desktop version 4.22 and later.

include:
  - shared/docker-compose.yaml
  - docker-compose.prod.yaml

services:
  webapp:
    depends_on:
      - redis

command will be without mentioning both file as argument -f

docker compose up -d

Upvotes: 37

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