Install the Docker Compose plugin

Table of contents

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. For the Docker Compose standalone, see Install the Docker Compose Standalone.

Install using the repository

  1. Set up the repository. Find distribution-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 distributions, 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 Docker Compose

To update the Docker 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 distributions, run:

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

Install the plugin manually

Note

This option requires you to manage upgrades manually. It is recommended that you set up Docker's repository for easier maintenance.

  1. To download and install the Docker 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/v2.30.3/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 v2.30.3 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

    Expected output:

    Docker Compose version v2.30.3