Docker Compose — Up and Down

2 minute read

The two most important Compose commands are docker compose up and docker compose down. This page covers all the options and behavior of these essential commands.

docker compose up

up creates and starts containers, networks, and volumes defined in your compose file.

Basic Usage

# Start in foreground (logs stream to terminal)
docker compose up

# Start in background (detached)
docker compose up -d

Common Options

# Start in background
docker compose up -d

# Rebuild images before starting
docker compose up --build

# Force recreate containers (even if config unchanged)
docker compose up --force-recreate

# Start specific services only
docker compose up -d web db

# Remove orphan containers (services removed from compose file)
docker compose up --remove-orphans

# Scale a service
docker compose up -d --scale web=3

# Wait for services to be healthy
docker compose up --wait

What up Does

docker compose up:
  1. Reads compose.yml
  2. Creates networks (if not exist)
  3. Creates volumes (if not exist)
  4. Pulls images (if not local)
  5. Builds images (if build: specified)
  6. Creates containers
  7. Starts containers (respecting depends_on order)
  8. Attaches to logs (foreground) or detaches (with -d)

docker compose down

down stops containers and removes containers, networks, and optionally volumes and images.

Basic Usage

# Stop and remove containers + networks
docker compose down

Expected output:

[+] Running 3/3
 ✔ Container myapp-web-1  Removed
 ✔ Container myapp-db-1   Removed
 ✔ Network myapp_default  Removed

Common Options

# Remove containers + networks (default)
docker compose down

# Also remove named volumes
docker compose down -v

# Also remove images
docker compose down --rmi all

# Remove only locally-built images
docker compose down --rmi local

# Remove orphan containers
docker compose down --remove-orphans

# Timeout for graceful shutdown (default 10s)
docker compose down -t 30

What down Removes

Flag Containers Networks Volumes Images
down ✅ ✅ ❌ ❌
down -v ✅ ✅ ✅ ❌
down --rmi all ✅ ✅ ❌ ✅
down -v --rmi all ✅ ✅ ✅ ✅

up vs start / down vs stop

Command What It Does
docker compose up Creates AND starts containers
docker compose start Starts existing stopped containers
docker compose down Stops AND removes containers + networks
docker compose stop Stops containers (doesn’t remove them) 
up ──→ Creates + Starts
       (full setup)

start ──→ Starts only
          (containers must exist)

stop ──→ Stops only
         (containers still exist)

down ──→ Stops + Removes
         (full cleanup)

The Daily Workflow

# Morning — start your dev stack
docker compose up -d

# Work all day — services running in background
docker compose ps
docker compose logs -f api

# Evening — stop everything
docker compose down

# Next morning — start fresh
docker compose up -d
# Volumes persist — your database data is still there!

Summary

Command Purpose Removes
up -d Create + start in background —
up --build Rebuild images + start —
down Stop + remove containers, networks Containers, networks
down -v Also remove volumes + Volumes
down --rmi all Also remove images + Images

Quick Reference

Item Detail
Start background docker compose up -d
Start + rebuild docker compose up –build
Stop + clean docker compose down
Stop + clean + volumes docker compose down -v
Stop + clean + images docker compose down –rmi all
Start specific service docker compose up -d web

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