Compose Build Specification

Table of contents

Build is an optional part of the Compose Specification. It tells Compose how to (re)build an application from source and lets you define the build process within a Compose file in a portable way. build can be either specified as a single string defining a context path, or as a detailed build definition.

In the former case, the whole path is used as a Docker context to execute a Docker build, looking for a canonical Dockerfile at the root of the directory. The path can be absolute or relative. If it is relative, it is resolved from the directory containing your Compose file. If it is absolute, the path prevents the Compose file from being portable so Compose displays a warning.

In the latter case, build arguments can be specified, including an alternate Dockerfile location. The path can be absolute or relative. If it is relative, it is resolved from the directory containing your Compose file. If it is absolute, the path prevents the Compose file from being portable so Compose displays a warning.

Using build and image

When Compose is confronted with both a build subsection for a service and an image attribute, it follows the rules defined by the pull_policy attribute.

If pull_policy is missing from the service definition, Compose attempts to pull the image first and then builds from source if the image isn't found in the registry or platform cache.

Publishing built images

Compose with build support offers an option to push built images to a registry. When doing so, it doesn't try to push service images without an image attribute. Compose warns you about the missing image attribute which prevents images being pushed.

Illustrative example

The following example illustrates Compose Build Specification concepts with a concrete sample application. The sample is non-normative.

services:
  frontend:
    image: example/webapp
    build: ./webapp

  backend:
    image: example/database
    build:
      context: backend
      dockerfile: ../backend.Dockerfile

  custom:
    build: ~/custom

When used to build service images from source, the Compose file creates three Docker images:

  • example/webapp: A Docker image is built using webapp sub-directory, within the Compose file's parent folder, as the Docker build context. Lack of a Dockerfile within this folder throws an error.
  • example/database: A Docker image is built using backend sub-directory within the Compose file parent folder. backend.Dockerfile file is used to define build steps, this file is searched relative to the context path, which means .. resolves to the Compose file's parent folder, so backend.Dockerfile is a sibling file.
  • A Docker image is built using the custom directory with the user's HOME as the Docker context. Compose displays a warning about the non-portable path used to build image.

On push, both example/webapp and example/database Docker images are pushed to the default registry. The custom service image is skipped as no image attribute is set and Compose displays a warning about this missing attribute.

Attributes

The build subsection defines configuration options that are applied by Compose to build Docker images from source. build can be specified either as a string containing a path to the build context or as a detailed structure:

Using the string syntax, only the build context can be configured as either:

  • A relative path to the Compose file's parent folder. This path must be a directory and must contain a Dockerfile

    services:
  webapp:
    build: ./dir

  • A Git repository URL. Git URLs accept context configuration in their fragment section, separated by a colon (:). The first part represents the reference that Git checks out, and can be either a branch, a tag, or a remote reference. The second part represents a subdirectory inside the repository that is used as a build context.

    services:
  webapp:
    build: https://github.com/mycompany/example.git#branch_or_tag:subdirectory

Alternatively build can be an object with fields defined as follows:

additional_contexts

Introduced in Docker Compose version 2.17.0

additional_contexts defines a list of named contexts the image builder should use during image build.

additional_contexts can be a mapping or a list:

build:
  context: .
  additional_contexts:
    - resources=/path/to/resources
    - app=docker-image://my-app:latest
    - source=https://github.com/myuser/project.git
build:
  context: .
  additional_contexts:
    resources: /path/to/resources
    app: docker-image://my-app:latest
    source: https://github.com/myuser/project.git

When used as a list, the syntax follows the NAME=VALUE format, where VALUE is a string. Validation beyond that is the responsibility of the image builder (and is builder specific). Compose supports at least absolute and relative paths to a directory and Git repository URLs, like context does. Other context flavours must be prefixed to avoid ambiguity with a type:// prefix.

Compose warns you if the image builder does not support additional contexts and may list the unused contexts.

Illustrative examples of how this is used in Buildx can be found here.

args

args define build arguments, i.e. Dockerfile ARG values.

Using the following Dockerfile as an example:

ARG GIT_COMMIT
RUN echo "Based on commit: $GIT_COMMIT"

args can be set in the Compose file under the build key to define GIT_COMMIT. args can be set as a mapping or a list:

build:
  context: .
  args:
    GIT_COMMIT: cdc3b19
build:
  context: .
  args:
    - GIT_COMMIT=cdc3b19

Values can be omitted when specifying a build argument, in which case its value at build time must be obtained by user interaction, otherwise the build arg won't be set when building the Docker image.

args:
  - GIT_COMMIT

context

context defines either a path to a directory containing a Dockerfile, or a URL to a git repository.

When the value supplied is a relative path, it is interpreted as relative to the project directory. Compose warns you about the absolute path used to define the build context as those prevent the Compose file from being portable.

build:
  context: ./dir
services:
  webapp:
    build: https://github.com/mycompany/webapp.git

If not set explicitly, context defaults to project directory (.).

cache_from

cache_from defines a list of sources the image builder should use for cache resolution.

Cache location syntax follows the global format [NAME|type=TYPE[,KEY=VALUE]]. Simple NAME is actually a shortcut notation for type=registry,ref=NAME.

Compose Build implementations may support custom types, the Compose Specification defines canonical types which must be supported:

  • registry to retrieve build cache from an OCI image set by key ref
build:
  context: .
  cache_from:
    - alpine:latest
    - type=local,src=path/to/cache
    - type=gha

Unsupported caches are ignored and don't prevent you from building images.

cache_to

cache_to defines a list of export locations to be used to share build cache with future builds.

build:
  context: .
  cache_to:
   - user/app:cache
   - type=local,dest=path/to/cache

Cache target is defined using the same type=TYPE[,KEY=VALUE] syntax defined by cache_from.

Unsupported caches are ignored and don't prevent you from building images.

dockerfile

dockerfile sets an alternate Dockerfile. A relative path is resolved from the build context. Compose warns you about the absolute path used to define the Dockerfile as it prevents Compose files from being portable.

When set, dockerfile_inline attribute is not allowed and Compose rejects any Compose file having both set.

build:
  context: .
  dockerfile: webapp.Dockerfile

dockerfile_inline

Introduced in Docker Compose version 2.17.0

dockerfile_inline defines the Dockerfile content as an inlined string in a Compose file. When set, the dockerfile attribute is not allowed and Compose rejects any Compose file having both set.

Use of YAML multi-line string syntax is recommended to define the Dockerfile content:

build:
  context: .
  dockerfile_inline: |
    FROM baseimage
    RUN some command

entitlements

Introduced in Docker Compose version 2.27.1

entitlements defines extra privileged entitlements to be allowed during the build.

entitlements:
  - network.host
  - security.insecure

extra_hosts

extra_hosts adds hostname mappings at build-time. Use the same syntax as extra_hosts.

extra_hosts:
  - "somehost=162.242.195.82"
  - "otherhost=50.31.209.229"
  - "myhostv6=::1"

IPv6 addresses can be enclosed in square brackets, for example:

extra_hosts:
  - "myhostv6=[::1]"

The separator = is preferred, but : can also be used. Introduced in Docker Compose version 2.24.1. For example:

extra_hosts:
  - "somehost:162.242.195.82"
  - "myhostv6:::1"

Compose creates matching entry with the IP address and hostname in the container's network configuration, which means for Linux /etc/hosts will get extra lines:

162.242.195.82  somehost
50.31.209.229   otherhost
::1             myhostv6

isolation

isolation specifies a build’s container isolation technology. Like isolation, supported values are platform specific.

labels

labels add metadata to the resulting image. labels can be set either as an array or a map.

It's recommended that you use reverse-DNS notation to prevent your labels from conflicting with other software.

build:
  context: .
  labels:
    com.example.description: "Accounting webapp"
    com.example.department: "Finance"
    com.example.label-with-empty-value: ""
build:
  context: .
  labels:
    - "com.example.description=Accounting webapp"
    - "com.example.department=Finance"
    - "com.example.label-with-empty-value"

network

Set the network containers connect to for the RUN instructions during build.

build:
  context: .
  network: host
build:
  context: .
  network: custom_network_1

Use none to disable networking during build:

build:
  context: .
  network: none

no_cache

no_cache disables image builder cache and enforces a full rebuild from source for all image layers. This only applies to layers declared in the Dockerfile, referenced images can be retrieved from local image store whenever tag has been updated on registry (see pull).

platforms

platforms defines a list of target platforms.

build:
  context: "."
  platforms:
    - "linux/amd64"
    - "linux/arm64"

When the platforms attribute is omitted, Compose includes the service's platform in the list of the default build target platforms.

When the platforms attribute is defined, Compose includes the service's platform, otherwise users won't be able to run images they built.

Composes reports an error in the following cases:

  • When the list contains multiple platforms but the implementation is incapable of storing multi-platform images.

  • When the list contains an unsupported platform.

    build:
  context: "."
  platforms:
    - "linux/amd64"
    - "unsupported/unsupported"

  • When the list is non-empty and does not contain the service's platform

    services:
  frontend:
    platform: "linux/amd64"
    build:
      context: "."
      platforms:
        - "linux/arm64"

privileged

Introduced in Docker Compose version 2.15.0

privileged configures the service image to build with elevated privileges. Support and actual impacts are platform specific.

build:
  context: .
  privileged: true

pull

pull requires the image builder to pull referenced images (FROM Dockerfile directive), even if those are already available in the local image store.

secrets

secrets grants access to sensitive data defined by secrets on a per-service build basis. Two different syntax variants are supported: the short syntax and the long syntax.

Compose reports an error if the secret isn't defined in the secrets section of this Compose file.

Short syntax

The short syntax variant only specifies the secret name. This grants the container access to the secret and mounts it as read-only to /run/secrets/<secret_name> within the container. The source name and destination mountpoint are both set to the secret name.

The following example uses the short syntax to grant the build of the frontend service access to the server-certificate secret. The value of server-certificate is set to the contents of the file ./server.cert.

services:
  frontend:
    build:
      context: .
      secrets:
        - server-certificate
secrets:
  server-certificate:
    file: ./server.cert

Long syntax

The long syntax provides more granularity in how the secret is created within the service's containers.

  • source: The name of the secret as it exists on the platform.
  • target: The name of the file to be mounted in /run/secrets/ in the service's task containers. Defaults to source if not specified.
  • uid and gid: The numeric UID or GID that owns the file within /run/secrets/ in the service's task containers. Default value is USER running container.
  • mode: The permissions for the file to be mounted in /run/secrets/ in the service's task containers, in octal notation. Default value is world-readable permissions (mode 0444). The writable bit must be ignored if set. The executable bit may be set.

The following example sets the name of the server-certificate secret file to server.crt within the container, sets the mode to 0440 (group-readable) and sets the user and group to 103. The value of server-certificate secret is provided by the platform through a lookup and the secret lifecycle not directly managed by Compose.

services:
  frontend:
    build:
      context: .
      secrets:
        - source: server-certificate
          target: server.cert
          uid: "103"
          gid: "103"
          mode: 0440
secrets:
  server-certificate:
    external: true

Service builds may be granted access to multiple secrets. Long and short syntax for secrets may be used in the same Compose file. Defining a secret in the top-level secrets must not imply granting any service build access to it. Such grant must be explicit within service specification as secrets service element.

ssh

ssh defines SSH authentications that the image builder should use during image build (e.g., cloning private repository).

ssh property syntax can be either:

  • default: Let the builder connect to the SSH-agent.
  • ID=path: A key/value definition of an ID and the associated path. It can be either a PEM file, or path to ssh-agent socket.
build:
  context: .
  ssh:
    - default   # mount the default SSH agent

or

build:
  context: .
  ssh: ["default"]   # mount the default SSH agent

Using a custom id myproject with path to a local SSH key:

build:
  context: .
  ssh:
    - myproject=~/.ssh/myproject.pem

The image builder can then rely on this to mount the SSH key during build.

For illustration, SSH mounts can be used to mount the SSH key set by ID and access a secured resource:

RUN --mount=type=ssh,id=myproject git clone ...

shm_size

shm_size sets the size of the shared memory (/dev/shm partition on Linux) allocated for building Docker images. Specify as an integer value representing the number of bytes or as a string expressing a byte value.

build:
  context: .
  shm_size: '2gb'
build:
  context: .
  shm_size: 10000000

tags

tags defines a list of tag mappings that must be associated to the build image. This list comes in addition to the image property defined in the service section

tags:
  - "myimage:mytag"
  - "registry/username/myrepos:my-other-tag"

target

target defines the stage to build as defined inside a multi-stage Dockerfile.

build:
  context: .
  target: prod

ulimits

Introduced in Docker Compose version 2.23.1

ulimits overrides the default ulimits for a container. It's specified either as an integer for a single limit or as mapping for soft/hard limits.

services:
  frontend:
    build:
      context: .
      ulimits:
        nproc: 65535
        nofile:
          soft: 20000
          hard: 40000