If you're a Mac or Windows user, the best way to install Compose and keep it up-to-date is Docker Desktop for Mac and Windows.
Docker Desktop will automatically install the latest version of Docker Engine for you.
Alternatively, you can use the usual commands to install or upgrade Compose:
curl -L https://github.com/docker/compose/releases/download/1.24.0-rc1/docker-compose-`uname -s`-`uname -m` -o /usr/local/bin/docker-compose
chmod +x /usr/local/bin/docker-compose
See the install docs for more install options and instructions.
| Compose file format | Docker Engine |
|---|---|
| 1 | 1.9.0+ |
| 2.0 | 1.10.0+ |
| 2.1 | 1.12.0+ |
| 2.2, 3.0, 3.1, 3.2 | 1.13.0+ |
| 2.3, 3.3, 3.4, 3.5 | 17.06.0+ |
| 2.4 | 17.12.0+ |
| 3.6 | 18.02.0+ |
| 3.7 | 18.06.0+ |
Added support for connecting to the Docker Engine using the ssh protocol.
Added a --all flag to docker-compose ps to include stopped one-off containers
in the command's output.
Fixed a bug where some valid credential helpers weren't properly handled by Compose when attempting to pull images from private registries.
Fixed an issue where the output of docker-compose start before containers were created
was misleading
To match the Docker CLI behavior and to avoid confusing issues, Compose will no longer accept whitespace in variable names sourced from environment files.
Compose will now report a configuration error if a service attempts to declare duplicate mount points in the volumes section.
Fixed an issue with the containerized version of Compose that prevented users from
writing to stdin during interactive sessions started by run or exec.
One-off containers started by run no longer adopt the restart policy of the service,
and are instead set to never restart.
Fixed an issue that caused some container events to not appear in the output of
the docker-compose events command.
Missing images will no longer stop the execution of docker-compose down commands
(a warning will be displayed instead).
Thanks to @albers, @ceh, @gmsantos, @Cyral, @nvllsvm, @alexpusch, @hirochachacha, @and800, @qboot, @smueller18, @ofek, @ulyssessouza, @hartwork, @Dimrok, @collin5, @shin- for contributing to this release!
| Binary name | SHA-256 sum |
|---|---|
docker-compose-Darwin-x86_64 | 7e943fd92103e3355610b50353d653a755861d3261feded2c1cf825acf4f1bdf |
docker-compose-Linux-x86_64 | 451b7dbb34a4ee3b69abc9c60414ee277416d69069e200274b2f37da0d558d30 |
docker-compose-Windows-x86_64.exe | 5296ba4dd323cf53a371092f49394fe33b7a33ce96944b55b6f23d2137eade57 |
Fetched March 31, 2026