Control the local project with docker-compose

Introducing

• docker-compose stop
• docker-compose build

docker-compose is a command that uses the project’s docker-compose.yml file to control the local project. The docker-compose.yml file contains information about how the project should be built, what containers should be created, how they should be linked to each other, and so on.

docker-compose up and stop

You already know docker-compose up, which runs your project. If you hit control-c in the console, it will stop it.

Another way to stop it is by executing docker-compose stop in the same directory.

docker-compose build

When you created the project the first time, you built it locally. Sometimes you need to rebuild a project (for example, if you made a change to its requirements) with docker-compose build.

Try it.

Look at the output:

➜  docker-compose build
db uses an image, skipping
Building web
[...]

It builds the web container, but skips building the db container. That’s because it doesn’t need to. The db container, as you will see from the docker-compose.yml file, uses an off-the-shelf image. In Docker, images can be built and saved for re-use, saving time and making things repeatable.

Now that you know how to stop, start and build a local project, we are going to enter the local development cycle.

Explanation

Further reading: Understanding the docker-compose.yml file