Why use Compose?
- Common use cases of Docker Compose
- Development environments
- Automated testing environments
- Single host deployments
- What's next?
Using Docker Compose offers several benefits that streamline the development, deployment, and management of containerized applications:
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Simplified control: Define and manage multi-container apps in one YAML file, streamlining orchestration and replication.
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Efficient collaboration: Shareable YAML files support smooth collaboration between developers and operations, improving workflows and issue resolution, leading to increased overall efficiency.
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Rapid application development: Compose caches the configuration used to create a container. When you restart a service that has not changed, Compose reuses the existing containers. Reusing containers means that you can make changes to your environment quickly.
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Portability across environments: Compose supports variables in the Compose file. You can use these variables to customize your composition for different environments, or different users.
Common use cases of Docker Compose
Compose can be used in many different ways. Some common use cases are outlined below.
Development environments
When you're developing software, the ability to run an application in an isolated environment and interact with it is crucial. The Compose command line tool can be used to create the environment and interact with it.
The Compose file provides a way to document and configure
all of the application's service dependencies (databases, queues, caches,
web service APIs, etc). Using the Compose command line tool you can create
and start one or more containers for each dependency with a single command
(docker compose up).
Together, these features provide a convenient way for you to get started on a project. Compose can reduce a multi-page "developer getting started guide" to a single machine-readable Compose file and a few commands.
Automated testing environments
An important part of any Continuous Deployment or Continuous Integration process is the automated test suite. Automated end-to-end testing requires an environment in which to run tests. Compose provides a convenient way to create and destroy isolated testing environments for your test suite. By defining the full environment in a Compose file, you can create and destroy these environments in just a few commands:
$ docker compose up -d
$ ./run_tests
$ docker compose down
Single host deployments
Compose supports production deployments on single hosts. You can use Compose to deploy applications to remote Docker hosts and manage production-specific configurations.
For details on using production-oriented features, see Compose in production.