Install Docker Compose

In this post I will install docker compose on my Ubuntu 22.04.2 LTS homeserver. The prerequisite for this is an already installed Ubuntu server as well as root and ssh access. It is useful if you followed the inital configuration for a fresh install from DigitalOcean.

Step 1: Download and install Docker

Connect via ssh to your server and use the following command to download from the official Docker repo:

Update your packages:

sudo apt update

Use apt packagaes over HTTPS:

sudo apt install apt-transport-https ca-certificates curl software-properties-common

Add offical Docker repo key to your system:

curl -fsSL https://download.docker.com/linux/ubuntu/gpg | sudo gpg --dearmor -o /usr/share/keyrings/docker-archive-keyring.gpg

Add Docker repo to your APT sources:

echo "deb [arch=$(dpkg --print-architecture) signed-by=/usr/share/keyrings/docker-archive-keyring.gpg] https://download.docker.com/linux/ubuntu $(lsb_release -cs) stable" | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/docker.list > /dev/null

Update your packages again:

sudo apt update

Make Ubuntu use the Docker repo:

apt-cache policy docker-ce

Finally, install Docker:

sudo apt install docker-ce

Verify Docker installation:

sudo systemctl status docker

The ouput should be similar to this, showing that the service is up and running:

root@homeserver:/home/# sudo systemctl status docker
● docker.service - Docker Application Container Engine
     Loaded: loaded (/lib/systemd/system/docker.service; enabled; vendor preset: enabled)
     Active: active (running) since Fri 2023-05-19 10:47:41 UTC; 51s ago
TriggeredBy: ● docker.socket
       Docs: https://docs.docker.com
   Main PID: 16822 (dockerd)
      Tasks: 10
     Memory: 25.4M
        CPU: 373ms

Step 2: Download and install Docker Compose

Download Docker Compose directly from the Github repo:

mkdir -p /opt/docker/cli-plugins/
curl -SL https://github.com/docker/compose/releases/download/v2.3.3/docker-compose-linux-x86_64 -o /opt/docker/cli-plugins/docker-compose

Next, set  the correct permissions so that the docker compose command is executable:

chmod +x /opt/docker/cli-plugins/docker-compose

Verify correct installation:

docker compose version

The ouput should look something like this:

Output:
Docker Compose version v2.17.3

Docker Compose is now installed on your system and ready to use. In my next posts you will see how to set up a docker-compose.yml file for diffrent containers.

Update your Docker Compose:

Remove Docker Compose first when installed with curl:

sudo rm /opt/docker/cli-plugins/docker-compose

Get the latest version with grep and write the version number into a variable:

# curl + grep
VERSION=$(curl --silent https://api.github.com/repos/docker/compose/releases/latest | grep -Po '"tag_name": "\K.*\d')

Finally download the latest version to your favorite path which you can set here:

mkdir -p /opt/docker/cli-plugins/
DESTINATION=/opt/docker/cli-plugins/docker-compose
sudo curl -L https://github.com/docker/compose/releases/download/${VERSION}/docker-compose-$(uname -s)-$(uname -m) -o $DESTINATION
chmod +x $DESTINATION

Verify new version:

docker compose version

Output:
Docker Compose version v2.18.1