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I have not been able to find a way to up/down just one container in a docker-compose.yml file. I can off-course start and stop a single container, but I cannot make changes to a containers configuration between restarts (environment variables, mount points etc.)

What am I missing here? What is the best practice in this case?

Inquisitor Shm
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    ```docker-compose build ``` followed by ```docker-compose up```. This would only build the changes to a single container instead of rebuilding all the containers – Abercrombie May 12 '21 at 14:37
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    I don't have your use case. I just have several containers running and I want to stop one. Apparently there is no way to do this. I ended up stopping everything and restarting them all minus the one. Seems mildly ridiculous. – Mike B Apr 19 '22 at 21:37

8 Answers8

153

I found this to have the same affect as docker-compose down for a single service:

docker-compose rm -s -v yourService

docker-compose rm

Usage: rm [options] [SERVICE...]

Options:
-s, --stop Stop the containers, if required, before removing
-v Remove any anonymous volumes attached to containers

You can condense all the flags into a single - param: docker-compose rm -sv yourService

laurent
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Jordan Morris
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    I think disposes the disk, btw – Jordan Morris Sep 05 '18 at 12:02
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    Could you please explain the flags, what they would do? – Semo May 22 '19 at 13:23
  • Jordan Morris, according to the manual -v disposes of anonymous volumes only when used with 'rm'. When used with 'down' it is stronger, also disposing of named volumes. The former is pretty safe. – Markus-Hermann Aug 07 '20 at 12:47
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    This should be the answer. docker-compose down only does all or nothing...this points to the service and stops it. – eco Feb 07 '21 at 06:05
  • @eco and importantly, docker-compose down applies to all the containers, not just one – Jordan Morris May 23 '21 at 22:30
  • This doesn't work with named volumes. rm -v only removes anonymous volumes. – CompEng88 Sep 28 '22 at 21:39
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    I was looking for this solution exactly. Only thing is I had to execute `docker-compose rm -s -v yourService` twice. First time it stops service's container. Second time it asks `? Going to remove name-service-1` which I responded yes and container is removed along with unnamed volumes, being able to apply fresh start recreating unnamed volumes again with `docker-compose up -d yourService`. This is without affecting other services being stoped, which `docker-compose down` does. Thanks! – MauricioID Mar 22 '23 at 17:48
  • Hm... Not sure why it doesn't work for me. The console says "No stopped containers". Docker Compose version v2.12.0. – emeraldhieu Apr 27 '23 at 18:08
  • If you don't want to enter the confirmation for `? Going to remove `, just add -f – Seb Aug 03 '23 at 20:58
58

I would suggest you check out this excellent thread on stackoverflow.com. The quick answer here to rebuild the single container and restart it is:

docker-compose up -d --build worker

This would be the ideal solution if, for example, your changes involved your Dockerfile and not just docker-compose.ymll

gabriel1836
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  • I wish I'd seen this before. This is the correct answer!! In any case I've created my version, which will probably get triaged and deprecated with a step by step explanation. – eco Feb 07 '21 at 09:04
  • Almost the correct answer, since this says how to bring *up* one container. The question is also about how to bring one container *down*. However, that seems to be only possible with `docker rm` – Stijn de Witt Apr 05 '22 at 14:01
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    Mmm ran this command, replacing `worker` with the service name, but it just rebuilt *all* services... I guess `worker` was supposed to be literal? I am just looking for a set of commands to bring one service down, then bring one service back up... – Stijn de Witt Apr 05 '22 at 14:22
13

You can use

$ docker-compose -f docker-compose.yml up yourService

to start just yourService and all dependencies required by it.

So if yourService depends on mysql container, the above command would start both the containers.

user674669
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7

Others have shown how to start/up containers together, however this is how you can restart and stop them individually.

Restart a Container

# restart immediately
docker-compose restart <container_name>

# restart after a 10s delay
docker-compose restart -t 10 <container_name>

Stop a Container

# stop immediately  
docker-compose stop <container_name>

# stop after a 10s delay  
docker-compose stop -t 10 <container_name>

For those who want to make changes without downtime, you can build a new image and make changes without any stop/start with the following command but it will build all Dockerfile in docker-compose.yml file:

docker-compose up -d --build
Blind Spots
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Iman
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5

I had this need recently and solved it by having a separate docker-compose-production.yml file to deal with tweaks. Then remember to launch with docker-compose -f docker-compose-production.yml...

icarito
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  • How does this work when it comes time to do `docker-compose down`? Wouldn't it bring down all the containers which have been brought up in all .yml files? – Jordan Morris Sep 15 '17 at 10:17
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    You can do `docker-compose -f docker-compose-production.yml down` – icarito Sep 17 '17 at 18:20
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    And where do you specify the container you would like to get up/down? `-f` is the selector of compose file, not container. – astrowalker Dec 11 '19 at 12:02
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    ... "by having a separate .yml file." Yes, it's not an ideal solution but it deletes not only volumes but also a network, which "docker-compose rm -s -v yourService" won't do, according to what I understand. – Nusrat Nuriyev Oct 21 '21 at 12:49
0

There's no need to delete anything. To address the OP's question: You need to rebuild the image then use up to replace the container with the newly configured imaged.

IMPORTANT: notice that the new image will automatically be tagged with latest.

Step 1: Edit Docker file
Step 2: docker-compose build
Step 3: docker-compose up

The docker-compose up will leave all the unchanged containers alone and replace only the containers that have a newly created image.

eco
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0

Building off of Jordan Morris' answer, this version of the command will take down your specific service and not prompt you before it removes the associated volumes:

docker-compose rm -s -v -f your_service_name

The difference is the addition of a -f flag (for "force").

eriegz
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$ docker-compose -f your-compose-file-here.yml stop only-that-service
floridemar
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