how to get docker-compose to use the latest image

Question

I don't know what I'm doing wrong, but I simply cannot get docker-compose up to use the latest image from our registry without first removing the old containers from the system completely. It looks like compose is using the previously started image even though docker-compose pull has fetched a newer image.

I looked at How to get docker-compose to always re-create containers from fresh images? which seemed to be similar to my issue, but none of the provided solutions there work for me, since I'm looking for a solution I can use on the production server and there I don't want to be removing all containers before starting them again (possible data loss?). I would like for compose only to detect the new version of the changed images, pull them and then restart the services with those new images.

I created a simple test project for this in which the only goal is to get a version nr to increase on each new build. The version nr is displayed if I browse to the nginx server that is created (this works as expected locally).

docker version: 1.11.2 docker-compose version: 1.7.1 OS: tested on both CentOS 7 and OS X 10.10 using docker-toolbox

My docker-compose.yml:

version: '2'
services:
  application:
    image: ourprivate.docker.reg:5000/ourcompany/buildchaintest:0.1.8-dev
    volumes:
      - /var/www/html
    tty: true

  nginx:
    build: nginx
    ports:
      - "80:80"
    volumes_from:
      - application
    volumes:
      - ./logs/nginx/:/var/log/nginx
  php:
    container_name: buildchaintest_php_1
    build: php-fpm
    expose:
      - "9000"
    volumes_from:
      - application
    volumes:
      - ./logs/php-fpm/:/var/www/logs

on our jenkins server I run the following to build and tag the image

cd $WORKSPACE && PROJECT_VERSION=$(cat VERSION)-dev
/usr/local/bin/docker-compose rm -f
/usr/local/bin/docker-compose build
docker tag ourprivate.docker.reg:5000/ourcompany/buildchaintest ourprivate.docker.reg:5000/ourcompany/buildchaintest:$PROJECT_VERSION
docker push ourprivate.docker.reg:5000/ourcompany/buildchaintest

this seems to be doing what it's supposed to be since I get a new version tag in our repository each time the build completes and the version nr has been bumped.

If I now run

docker-compose pull && docker-compose -f docker-compose.yml up -d

in a folder on my computer, where the contents is only the docker-compose.yml and the necessary Dockerfiles to build the nginx and php services, the output I get is not the latest version number as has been tagged in the registry or is shown in the docker-compose.yml (0.1.8), but the version before that, which is 0.1.7. However the output of the pull command would suggest that a new version of the image was fetched:

Pulling application (ourprivate.docker.reg:5000/ourcompany/buildchaintest:latest)...
latest: Pulling from ourcompany/buildchaintest
Digest: sha256:8f7a06203005ff932799fe89e7756cd21719cccb9099b7898af2399414bfe62a
Status: Downloaded newer image for docker.locotech.fi:5000/locotech/buildchaintest:0.1.8-dev

Only if I run

docker-compose stop && docker-compose rm -f

and then run the docker-compose up command do I get the new version to show up on screen as expected.

Is this intended behaviour of docker-compose? i.e. should I always do a docker-compose rm -f before running up again, even on production servers? Or am I doing something against the grain here, which is why it's not working?

The goal is to have our build process build and create tagged versions of the images needed in a docker-compose.yml, push those to our private registry and then for the "release to production-step" to simply copy the docker-compose.yml to the production server and run a docker-compose pull && docker-compose -f docker-compose.yml up -d for the new image to start in production. If anyone has tips on this or can point to a best practices tutorial for this kind of setup that would be much appreciated also.

Answer 1

Option down resolve this problem

I run my compose file:

docker-compose -f docker/docker-compose.yml up -d

then I delete all with down --rmi all

docker-compose -f docker/docker-compose.yml down --rmi all

Stops containers and removes containers, networks, volumes, and images
created by `up`.

By default, the only things removed are:

- Containers for services defined in the Compose file
- Networks defined in the `networks` section of the Compose file
- The default network, if one is used

Networks and volumes defined as `external` are never removed.

Usage: down [options]

Options:
    --rmi type          Remove images. Type must be one of:
                        'all': Remove all images used by any service.
                        'local': Remove only images that don't have a custom tag
                        set by the `image` field.
    -v, --volumes       Remove named volumes declared in the `volumes` section
                        of the Compose file and anonymous volumes
                        attached to containers.
    --remove-orphans    Remove containers for services not defined in the
                        Compose file

Answer 2

I've seen this occur in our 7-8 docker production system. Another solution that worked for me in production was to run

docker-compose down
docker-compose up -d

this removes the containers and seems to make 'up' create new ones from the latest image.

This doesn't yet solve my dream of down+up per EACH changed container (serially, less down time), but it works to force 'up' to update the containers.

Answer 3

I have extended Abhi's script bit further as below

export composeFile="docker-compose.test.yml"
docker-compose -f  $composeFile down 
docker-compose -f  $composeFile pull 
docker-compose -f  $composeFile up -d

Answer 4

To get the latest images use docker-compose build --pull

I use below command which is really 3 in 1

 "docker-compose down && docker-compose build --pull && docker-compose up -d"

This Command will stop the services, pull the latest image and then start the services.

Answer 5

The docker-compose documentation for the 'up' command clearly states that it updates the container should the image be changed since the last 'up' was performed:

If there are existing containers for a service, and the service’s configuration or image was changed after the container’s creation, docker-compose up picks up the changes by stopping and recreating the containers (preserving mounted volumes).

So by using 'stop' followed by 'pull' and then 'up' this should therefore avoid issues of lost volumes for the running containers, except of course, for containers whose images have been updated.

I am currently experimenting with this process and will include my results in this comment shortly.

Answer 6

To close this question, what seemed to have worked is indeed running

docker-compose stop
docker-compose rm -f
docker-compose -f docker-compose.yml up -d

I.e. remove the containers before running up again.

What one needs to keep in mind when doing it like this is that data volume containers are removed as well if you just run rm -f. In order to prevent that I specify explicitly each container to remove:

docker-compose rm -f application nginx php

As I said in my question, I don't know if this is the correct process. But this seems to work for our use case, so until we find a better solution we'll roll with this one.