Tips & Tricks¶

docker compose expects a compose.yml file in the current directory and if one isn't present it will complain. In order to improve your quality of life we suggest the use of bash aliases. The file path for the aliases below assumes that the compose.yml file is being kept in the folder /opt. If your compose file is kept somewhere else, like in a home directory, then the path will need to be changed.

Create or open the file ~/.bash_aliases and populate with the following content:

alias dcup='docker compose -f /opt/compose.yml up -d' #brings up all containers if one is not defined after dcup

alias dcdown='docker compose -f /opt/compose.yml stop' #brings down all containers if one is not defined after dcdown

alias dcpull='docker compose -f /opt/compose.yml pull' #pulls all new images is specified after dcpull

alias dclogs='docker compose -f /opt/compose.yml logs -tf --tail="50" '

alias dtail='docker logs -tf --tail="50" "$@"'

If the compose.yml file is in a home directory, the following can be put in the ~/.bash_aliases file.

alias dcup='docker compose -f ~/compose.yml up -d' #brings up all containers if one is not defined after dcup

alias dcdown='docker compose -f ~/compose.yml stop' #brings down all containers if one is not defined after dcdown

alias dcpull='docker compose -f ~/compose.yml pull' #pulls all new images unless one is specified

alias dclogs='docker compose -f ~/compose.yml logs -tf --tail="50" '

alias dtail='docker logs -tf --tail="50" "$@"'

Some distributions, like Ubuntu, already have the code snippet below in the ~/.bashrc file. If it is not included, you'll need to add the following to your ~/.bashrc file in order for the aliases file to be picked up:

if [ -f ~/.bash_aliases ]; then

. ~/.bash_aliases

fi

Once configured, you can run source ~/.bashrc or log out and the log in again. Now you can type dcpull or dcup to manage your entire fleet of containers at once. It's like magic.