docker-compose.yml vs docker-stack.yml what difference?

Question

I am new docker-user. And in difference manuals I have find usually docker-compose.yml file for description docker job, but on docker site for this goal used docker-stack.yml file. What difference?

Answer 1

docker-compose.yml is for the docker-compose tool which is for multi container docker applications on a single docker engine.

its called with

docker-compose up

docker-stack.yml is for the docker swarm tool. (for orchestration and scheduling).

its called with

docker stack

Answer 2

To add to Gabbax0r reply:

Docker Swarm was a standalone component used to cluster Docker engines as a single one.

As of Docker 1.12 the "Swarm" standalone was integrated inside the Docker engine ( read the preamble at this page ), and Swarm is (or will be) legacy.

To reply to your original question, it is just different names for different cases, but they both are meant to serve the same purpose.

To reply to your comment question, use docker-compose when you have to orchestrate a multi-container app on a single node; if you have to worry about multi-nodes and load-balancing and all this advanced stuff, you better off go with the Swarm.

Answer 3

The docker-stack.yml has the advantage over docker-compose.yml :

1. Update separately

   When working with services, swarms, and docker-stack.yml files, keep in mind that the tasks (containers) backing a service can be deployed on any node in a swarm.

   This may be applied to a different node each time the service is updated.

2. Deploy remotely

   If you are running Docker Swarm on your private host then docker-stack.yml can use to access and deploy your application remotely to the host using an SSH key.

   You may even use such a service like Codefresh to do so.