Docker Compose Cheatsheet

Sun, 11 Oct 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Installation

Compose v2 is a Docker CLI plugin (docker-compose-plugin), installed next to Docker Engine.

Ubuntu and Debian

# Docker's apt repository
sudo apt update
sudo apt install -y ca-certificates curl
sudo install -m 0755 -d /etc/apt/keyrings
sudo curl -fsSL https://download.docker.com/linux/ubuntu/gpg -o /etc/apt/keyrings/docker.asc
sudo chmod a+r /etc/apt/keyrings/docker.asc

sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/docker.sources > /dev/null <<EOF
Types: deb
URIs: https://download.docker.com/linux/ubuntu
Suites: $(. /etc/os-release && echo "${UBUNTU_CODENAME:-$VERSION_CODENAME}")
Components: stable
Signed-By: /etc/apt/keyrings/docker.asc
EOF

# Docker Engine, CLI, Buildx and Compose
sudo apt update
sudo apt install -y docker-ce docker-ce-cli containerd.io docker-buildx-plugin docker-compose-plugin

On Debian, replace ubuntu with debian in both URLs. The Suites: line fills in the release codename (noble, trixie).

Containers on Daniel Corneschi

Docker Compose Cheatsheet

Installation

Ubuntu and Debian