docker compose pull

DescriptionPull service images
Usagedocker compose pull [OPTIONS] [SERVICE...]

Description

Pulls an image associated with a service defined in a compose.yaml file, but does not start containers based on those images

Options

OptionDefaultDescription
--ignore-buildableIgnore images that can be built
--ignore-pull-failuresPull what it can and ignores images with pull failures
--include-depsAlso pull services declared as dependencies
--policyApply pull policy ("missing"|"always")
-q, --quietPull without printing progress information

Examples

Consider the following compose.yaml:

services:
  db:
    image: postgres
  web:
    build: .
    command: bundle exec rails s -p 3000 -b '0.0.0.0'
    volumes:
      - .:/myapp
    ports:
      - "3000:3000"
    depends_on:
      - db

If you run docker compose pull ServiceName in the same directory as the compose.yaml file that defines the service, Docker pulls the associated image. For example, to call the postgres image configured as the db service in our example, you would run docker compose pull db.

$ docker compose pull db
[+] Running 1/15
 ⠸ db Pulling                                                             12.4s
   ⠿ 45b42c59be33 Already exists                                           0.0s
   ⠹ 40adec129f1a Downloading  3.374MB/4.178MB                             9.3s
   ⠹ b4c431d00c78 Download complete                                        9.3s
   ⠹ 2696974e2815 Download complete                                        9.3s
   ⠹ 564b77596399 Downloading  5.622MB/7.965MB                             9.3s
   ⠹ 5044045cf6f2 Downloading  216.7kB/391.1kB                             9.3s
   ⠹ d736e67e6ac3 Waiting                                                  9.3s
   ⠹ 390c1c9a5ae4 Waiting                                                  9.3s
   ⠹ c0e62f172284 Waiting                                                  9.3s
   ⠹ ebcdc659c5bf Waiting                                                  9.3s
   ⠹ 29be22cb3acc Waiting                                                  9.3s
   ⠹ f63c47038e66 Waiting                                                  9.3s
   ⠹ 77a0c198cde5 Waiting                                                  9.3s
   ⠹ c8752d5b785c Waiting                                                  9.3s

docker compose pull tries to pull image for services with a build section. If pull fails, it lets you know this service image must be built. You can skip this by setting --ignore-buildable flag.