Using Compose with Finch

Containerized applications composed of multiple services are often defined in Docker Compose files. Finch offers a CLI that is compatible to the docker compose cli, therefore commands that you have used previously like docker compose up could be translated to finch compose up.

Building Containers Images with a Compose File

A service defined in a compose file can be built with the finch compose command. To do so, add the build key, with the value set as local context to use.

1. In the hello-finch sample application directory, we can create a Compose file. In the file we define the hello-finch service and provide a context for the container image build.

   macOS / bashWindows / PowerShellLinux

   git clone https://github.com/runfinch/finch.git
   cd finch/contrib/hello-finch
   
   # Add a Compose File to the Directory
   cat <<EOF > compose.yaml
   services:
     hello-finch:
       image: hello-finch
       build: .
   EOF
   

   git clone https://github.com/runfinch/finch.git
   cd finch/contrib/hello-finch
   
   # Add a Compose File to the Directory
   @"
   services:
     hello-finch:
       image: hello-finch
       build: .
   "@ > compose.yaml
   

   git clone https://github.com/runfinch/finch.git
   cd finch/contrib/hello-finch
   
   # Add a Compose File to the Directory
   cat <<EOF > compose.yaml
   services:
     hello-finch:
       image: hello-finch
       build: .
   EOF
   

2. Build the container images using finch compose build.

   macOS / bashWindows / PowerShellLinux

   finch compose build
   

   finch compose build
   

   sudo finch compose build
   

3. You can verify that the container image has been built successfully using the finch image list command.

   macOS / bashWindows / PowerShellLinux

   finch image list
   

   finch image list
   

   sudo finch image list
   

   The output should show the container image tagged with the service name.

   REPOSITORY     TAG       IMAGE ID        CREATED           PLATFORM       SIZE       BLOB SIZE
   hello-finch    latest    69b2528740fe    49 seconds ago    linux/arm64    1.8 MiB    1008.4 KiB
   

Running Containers with a Compose File

1 or more services can be defined in a compose file, and then all services can be started with the finch compose up command.

1. Leveraging the hello-finch sample application, we can create a Compose file. In the file we define the hello-finch service and provide a context for the container image build.

   macOS / bashWindows / PowerShellLinux

   git clone https://github.com/runfinch/finch.git
   cd finch/contrib/hello-finch
   
   # Add a Compose File to the Directory
   cat <<EOF > compose.yaml
   services:
     hello-finch:
       image: hello-finch
       build: .
   EOF
   

   git clone https://github.com/runfinch/finch.git
   cd finch/contrib/hello-finch
   
   # Add a Compose File to the Directory
   @"
   services:
     hello-finch:
       image: hello-finch
       build: .
   "@ > compose.yaml
   

   git clone https://github.com/runfinch/finch.git
   cd finch/contrib/hello-finch
   
   # Add a Compose File to the Directory
   cat <<EOF > compose.yaml
   services:
     hello-finch:
       image: hello-finch
       build: .
   EOF
   

2. Next we will run the service with finch compose up, if the container image does not exist locally, finch will build the container image before starting the service.

   macOS / bashWindows / PowerShellLinux

   finch image list
   

   finch image list
   

   sudo finch compose up
   

   Upon success, the output should look something like the following:

   INFO[0018] Creating container hello-finch_hello-finch_1
   INFO[0018] Attaching to logs
   hello-finch_1 |
   hello-finch_1 |                            @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@
   hello-finch_1 |                        @@@@@@@@@@@@    @@@@@@@@@@@
   hello-finch_1 |                      @@@@@@@                  @@@@@@@
   hello-finch_1 |                    @@@@@@                        @@@@@@
   hello-finch_1 |                  @@@@@@                            @@@@@
   hello-finch_1 |                 @@@@@                      @@@#     @@@@@@@@@
   hello-finch_1 |                @@@@@                     @@   @@@       @@@@@@@@@@
   hello-finch_1 |                @@@@%                     @     @@            @@@@@@@@@@@
   hello-finch_1 |                @@@@                                               @@@@@@@@
   hello-finch_1 |                @@@@                                         @@@@@@@@@@@&
   hello-finch_1 |                @@@@@                                  &@@@@@@@@@@@
   hello-finch_1 |                 @@@@@                               @@@@@@@@
   hello-finch_1 |                  @@@@@                            @@@@@(
   hello-finch_1 |                   @@@@@@                        @@@@@@
   hello-finch_1 |                     @@@@@@@                  @@@@@@@
   hello-finch_1 |                        @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@
   hello-finch_1 |                            @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@
   hello-finch_1 |
   hello-finch_1 |
   hello-finch_1 |Hello from Finch!
   hello-finch_1 |
   hello-finch_1 |Visit us @ github.com/runfinch
   hello-finch_1 |
   INFO[0018] Container "hello-finch_hello-finch_1" exited
   INFO[0018] All the containers have exited
   INFO[0018] Stopping containers (forcibly)
   INFO[0018] Stopping container hello-finch_hello-finch_1
   

Next Steps

In this short section, you learned how to use Compose files with Finch.

• To learn about leveraging Compose files with Finch, see the Finch Compose reference.