docker-compose run

Estimated reading time: 2 minutes
Usage: run [options] [-e KEY=VAL...] SERVICE [COMMAND] [ARGS...]

Options:
-d                    Detached mode: Run container in the background, print
                          new container name.
--name NAME           Assign a name to the container
--entrypoint CMD      Override the entrypoint of the image.
-e KEY=VAL            Set an environment variable (can be used multiple times)
-u, --user=""         Run as specified username or uid
--no-deps             Don't start linked services.
--rm                  Remove container after run. Ignored in detached mode.
-p, --publish=[]      Publish a container's port(s) to the host
--service-ports       Run command with the service's ports enabled and mapped to the host.
-T                    Disable pseudo-tty allocation. By default `docker-compose run` allocates a TTY.
-w, --workdir=""      Working directory inside the container

Runs a one-time command against a service. For example, the following command starts the web service and runs bash as its command.

docker-compose run web bash

Commands you use with run start in new containers with the same configuration as defined by the service’ configuration. This means the container has the same volumes, links, as defined in the configuration file. There are two differences though.

First, the command passed by run overrides the command defined in the service configuration. For example, if the web service configuration is started with bash, then docker-compose run web python app.py overrides it with python app.py.

The second difference is the docker-compose run command does not create any of the ports specified in the service configuration. This prevents the port collisions with already open ports. If you do want the service’s ports created and mapped to the host, specify the --service-ports flag:

docker-compose run --service-ports web python manage.py shell

Alternatively manual port mapping can be specified. Same as when running Docker’s run command - using --publish or -p options:

docker-compose run --publish 8080:80 -p 2022:22 -p 127.0.0.1:2021:21 web python manage.py shell

If you start a service configured with links, the run command first checks to see if the linked service is running and starts the service if it is stopped. Once all the linked services are running, the run executes the command you passed it. So, for example, you could run:

docker-compose run db psql -h db -U docker

This would open up an interactive PostgreSQL shell for the linked db container.

If you do not want the run command to start linked containers, specify the --no-deps flag:

docker-compose run --no-deps web python manage.py shell
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