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.

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 / PowerShell

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

Build the container images using finch compose build.
```
finch compose build
```

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

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.

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 / PowerShell

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

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.

finch compose up
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.