Install the Compose plugin

Important

Docker's documentation refers to and describes Compose V2 functionality.

Effective July 2023, Compose V1 stopped receiving updates and is no longer in new Docker Desktop releases. Compose V2 has replaced it and is now integrated into all current Docker Desktop versions. For more information, see Migrate to Compose V2.

On this page you can find instructions on how to install the Compose plugin on Linux from the command line.

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

• Set up Docker's repository on your Linux system.
• Install Compose manually.

Note

These instructions assume you already have Docker Engine and Docker CLI installed and now want to install the Compose plugin.
For Compose standalone, see Install Compose Standalone.

Install using the repository

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

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

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

   • For Ubuntu and Debian, run:

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

   • For RPM-based distros, run:

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

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

   $ docker compose version
   

   Expected output:

   Docker Compose version vN.N.N

   Where vN.N.N is placeholder text standing in for the latest version.

Update Compose

To update the Compose plugin, run the following commands:

• For Ubuntu and Debian, run:

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

• For RPM-based distros, run:

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

Install the plugin manually

Note

This option requires you to manage upgrades manually. We recommend setting up Docker's repository for easier maintenance.

1. To download and install the Compose CLI plugin, run:

   $ DOCKER_CONFIG=${DOCKER_CONFIG:-$HOME/.docker}
   $ mkdir -p $DOCKER_CONFIG/cli-plugins
   $ curl -SL https://github.com/docker/compose/releases/download/v2.26.1/docker-compose-linux-x86_64 -o $DOCKER_CONFIG/cli-plugins/docker-compose
   

   This command downloads the latest release of Docker Compose (from the Compose releases repository) and installs 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 v2.26.1 with the version of Compose you want to use.
   • For a different architecture, substitute x86_64 with the architecture you want.

2. Apply executable permissions to the binary:

   $ chmod +x $DOCKER_CONFIG/cli-plugins/docker-compose
   

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

   $ sudo chmod +x /usr/local/lib/docker/cli-plugins/docker-compose
   

3. Test the installation.

   $ docker compose version
   Docker Compose version v2.26.1