`docker-compose up` vs. `docker compose up` with environment variables

Question

I'm trying to deploy a three-node Elasticsearch cluster to an Azure Container Instance using Docker Compose. I'm loosely following this example from the Elasticsearch documentation and this tutorial from the ACI documentation.

When I try to deploy to ACI using the standard docker-compose command I see in most documentation, I get an error saying that it's not supported:

> docker-compose -f .\docker-compose.yml -f .\docker-compose.production.yml up
ERROR: The platform targeted with the current context is not supported.
Make sure the context in use targets a Docker Engine.

When I try to deploy to ACI using the docker compose (no hyphen) command from the ACI documentation, I get an error because it's not loading the environment variables from the .env file:

> docker compose -f .\docker-compose.yml -f .\docker-compose.production.yml up
1 error(s) decoding:

* error decoding 'Volumes[1]': invalid spec: certs:: empty section between colons

Is there a way to load the .env file when using docker compose, or use docker-compose with ACI? I don't fully understand where the docker compose command comes from and why it's different to docker-compose, it doesn't seem to be a standard docker command or a CLI extension that I can see.

These are the relevant files:

docker-compose.yml

# Based on example from Elasticsearch documentation:
# https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/elasticsearch/reference/current/docker.html#docker

version: '3.8'
services:

  es01:
    image: docker.elastic.co/elasticsearch/elasticsearch:7.10.0
    container_name: es01
    environment:
      - node.name=es01
      - cluster.name=es-docker-cluster
      - discovery.seed_hosts=es02,es03
      - cluster.initial_master_nodes=es01,es02,es03
      - ELASTIC_PASSWORD=$ELASTIC_PASSWORD 
      - bootstrap.memory_lock=true
      - "ES_JAVA_OPTS=-Xms512m -Xmx512m"
      - xpack.security.enabled=true
      - xpack.security.http.ssl.enabled=true
      - xpack.security.http.ssl.key=$CERTS_DIR/es01/es01.key
      - xpack.security.http.ssl.certificate_authorities=$CERTS_DIR/ca/ca.crt
      - xpack.security.http.ssl.certificate=$CERTS_DIR/es01/es01.crt
      - xpack.security.transport.ssl.enabled=true
      - xpack.security.transport.ssl.verification_mode=certificate 
      - xpack.security.transport.ssl.certificate_authorities=$CERTS_DIR/ca/ca.crt
      - xpack.security.transport.ssl.certificate=$CERTS_DIR/es01/es01.crt
      - xpack.security.transport.ssl.key=$CERTS_DIR/es01/es01.key
    volumes:
      - data01:/usr/share/elasticsearch/data
      - 'certs:$CERTS_DIR'
    ports:
      - 127.0.0.1:9200:9200
    networks:
      - elastic
    healthcheck:
      test: curl --cacert $CERTS_DIR/ca/ca.crt -s https://localhost:9200 >/dev/null; if [[ $$? == 52 ]]; then echo 0; else echo 1; fi
      interval: 30s
      timeout: 10s
      retries: 5
    ulimits:
      memlock:
        soft: -1
        hard: -1
    
  es02:
    image: docker.elastic.co/elasticsearch/elasticsearch:7.10.0
    container_name: es02
    environment:
      - node.name=es02
      - cluster.name=es-docker-cluster
      - discovery.seed_hosts=es01,es03
      - cluster.initial_master_nodes=es01,es02,es03
      - bootstrap.memory_lock=true
      - "ES_JAVA_OPTS=-Xms512m -Xmx512m"
      - xpack.security.http.ssl.key=$CERTS_DIR/es02/es02.key
      - xpack.security.http.ssl.certificate_authorities=$CERTS_DIR/ca/ca.crt
      - xpack.security.http.ssl.certificate=$CERTS_DIR/es02/es02.crt
      - xpack.security.transport.ssl.enabled=true
      - xpack.security.transport.ssl.verification_mode=certificate 
      - xpack.security.transport.ssl.certificate_authorities=$CERTS_DIR/ca/ca.crt
      - xpack.security.transport.ssl.certificate=$CERTS_DIR/es02/es02.crt
      - xpack.security.transport.ssl.key=$CERTS_DIR/es02/es02.key
    ulimits:
      memlock:
        soft: -1
        hard: -1
    volumes:
      - data02:/usr/share/elasticsearch/data
      - 'certs:$CERTS_DIR'
    networks:
      - elastic
  
  es03:
    image: docker.elastic.co/elasticsearch/elasticsearch:7.10.0
    container_name: es03
    environment:
      - node.name=es03
      - cluster.name=es-docker-cluster
      - discovery.seed_hosts=es01,es02
      - cluster.initial_master_nodes=es01,es02,es03
      - bootstrap.memory_lock=true
      - "ES_JAVA_OPTS=-Xms512m -Xmx512m"
      - xpack.security.http.ssl.key=$CERTS_DIR/es03/es03.key
      - xpack.security.http.ssl.certificate_authorities=$CERTS_DIR/ca/ca.crt
      - xpack.security.http.ssl.certificate=$CERTS_DIR/es03/es03.crt
      - xpack.security.transport.ssl.enabled=true
      - xpack.security.transport.ssl.verification_mode=certificate 
      - xpack.security.transport.ssl.certificate_authorities=$CERTS_DIR/ca/ca.crt
      - xpack.security.transport.ssl.certificate=$CERTS_DIR/es03/es03.crt
      - xpack.security.transport.ssl.key=$CERTS_DIR/es03/es03.key
    ulimits:
      memlock:
        soft: -1
        hard: -1
    volumes:
      - data03:/usr/share/elasticsearch/data
      - 'certs:$CERTS_DIR'
    networks:
      - elastic

  wait_until_ready:
    image: docker.elastic.co/elasticsearch/elasticsearch:7.10.0
    command: /usr/bin/true
    depends_on: {"es01": {"condition": "service_healthy"}}

volumes:
  data01:
  data02:
  data03:
  certs:

networks:
  elastic:
    driver: bridge

docker-compose.production.yml:

x-volume: &volume
  driver: azure_file
  driver_opts:
    share_name: acishare
    storage_account_name: <My Storage Account Name>

volumes:
  data01:
    <<: *volume
  data02:
    <<: *volume
  data03:
    <<: *volume
  certs:
    <<: *volume

.env

COMPOSE_PROJECT_NAME=es
CERTS_DIR=/usr/share/elasticsearch/config/certificates 
ELASTIC_PASSWORD=<Default Password>

I've also tried using the env_file property, but docker compose seems to ignore it.

Answer 1

Based on this GitHub issue comment, it seems that docker-compose is the original Compose project, its source code lives in the docker/compose repository.

docker compose is a new project that implements the Compose specification and supports ECS and ACI, but doesn't yet support local deployment. Its source code lives in the docker/compose-cli repository.

According to this issue, docker compose doesn't support .env files yet.