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Install the Docker Compose plugin ​

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This page contains instructions on how to install the Docker Compose plugin on Linux from the command line.

To install the Docker Compose plugin on Linux, you can either:

Note

These instructions assume you already have Docker Engine and Docker CLI installed and now want to install the Docker Compose plugin.

Install using the repository ​

  1. Set up the repository. Find distribution-specific instructions in:

Ubuntu | CentOS | Debian | Raspberry Pi OS | Fedora | RHEL.

  1. Update the package index, and install the latest version of Docker Compose:

    • For Ubuntu and Debian, run:

      console
      $ sudo apt-get update
$ sudo apt-get install docker-compose-plugin

    • For RPM-based distributions, run:

      console
      $ sudo yum update
$ sudo yum install docker-compose-plugin

  2. Verify that Docker Compose is installed correctly by checking the version.

console
$ docker compose version

Update Docker Compose ​

To update the Docker Compose plugin, run the following commands:

  • For Ubuntu and Debian, run:
console
$ sudo apt-get update
$ sudo apt-get install docker-compose-plugin
  • For RPM-based distributions, run:
console
$ sudo yum update
$ sudo yum install docker-compose-plugin

Install the plugin manually ​

Warning

Manual installations don’t auto-update. For ease of maintenance, use the Docker repository method.

  1. To download and install the Docker Compose CLI plugin, run:
console
$ DOCKER_CONFIG=${DOCKER_CONFIG:-$HOME/.docker}
$ mkdir -p $DOCKER_CONFIG/cli-plugins
$ curl -SL https://github.com/docker/compose/releases/download/v5.1.2/docker-compose-linux-x86_64 -o $DOCKER_CONFIG/cli-plugins/docker-compose

This command downloads and installs the latest release of Docker Compose for the active user under $HOME directory.

To install:

  • Docker Compose for all users on your system, replace ~/.docker/cli-plugins with /usr/local/lib/docker/cli-plugins.
  • A different version of Compose, substitute v5.1.2 with the version of Compose you want to use.
  • For a different architecture, substitute x86_64 with the architecture you want.
  1. Apply executable permissions to the binary:
console
$ chmod +x $DOCKER_CONFIG/cli-plugins/docker-compose

or, if you chose to install Compose for all users:

console
$ sudo chmod +x /usr/local/lib/docker/cli-plugins/docker-compose
  1. Test the installation.
console
$ docker compose version

What's next? ​