Command-line completion

Estimated reading time: 3 minutes

Compose comes with command completion for the bash and zsh shell.

Install command completion

Bash

Make sure bash completion is installed.

Linux

On a current Linux OS (in a non-minimal installation), bash completion should be available.

Place the completion script in /etc/bash_completion.d/.

$ sudo curl \
    -L https://raw.githubusercontent.com/docker/compose/1.29.2/contrib/completion/bash/docker-compose \
    -o /etc/bash_completion.d/docker-compose

Reload your terminal. You can close and then open a new terminal, or reload your setting with source ~/.bashrc command in your current terminal.

Mac

Install via Homebrew

Install with brew install bash-completion.
After the installation, Brew displays the installation path. Make sure to place the completion script in the path.

For example, place the completion script in /usr/local/etc/bash_completion.d/.
```
$ sudo curl \
    -L https://raw.githubusercontent.com/docker/compose/1.29.2/contrib/completion/bash/docker-compose \
    -o /usr/local/etc/bash_completion.d/docker-compose
```

Add the following to your ~/.bash_profile:

if [ -f $(brew --prefix)/etc/bash_completion ]; then
    . $(brew --prefix)/etc/bash_completion
fi

You can source your ~/.bash_profile or launch a new terminal to utilize completion.

Install via MacPorts

Run sudo port install bash-completion to install bash completion.

Add the following lines to ~/.bash_profile:

if [ -f /opt/local/etc/profile.d/bash_completion.sh ]; then
    . /opt/local/etc/profile.d/bash_completion.sh
fi

You can source your ~/.bash_profile or launch a new terminal to utilize completion.

Zsh

Make sure you have installed oh-my-zsh on your computer.

With oh-my-zsh shell

Add docker and docker-compose to the plugins list in ~/.zshrc to run autocompletion within the oh-my-zsh shell. In the following example, ... represent other Zsh plugins you may have installed.

plugins=(... docker docker-compose)

Without oh-my-zsh shell

Place the completion script in your /path/to/zsh/completion (typically ~/.zsh/completion/):

$ mkdir -p ~/.zsh/completion
$ curl \
    -L https://raw.githubusercontent.com/docker/compose/1.29.2/contrib/completion/zsh/_docker-compose \
    -o ~/.zsh/completion/_docker-compose

Include the directory in your $fpath by adding in ~/.zshrc:
```
fpath=(~/.zsh/completion $fpath)
```
Make sure compinit is loaded or do it by adding in ~/.zshrc:
```
autoload -Uz compinit && compinit -i
```
Then reload your shell:
```
$ exec $SHELL -l
```

Available completions

Depending on what you typed on the command line so far, it completes:

available docker-compose commands
options that are available for a particular command
service names that make sense in a given context, such as services with running or stopped instances or services based on images vs. services based on Dockerfiles. For docker-compose scale, completed service names automatically have “=” appended.
arguments for selected options. For example, docker-compose kill -s completes some signals like SIGHUP and SIGUSR1.

Enjoy working with Compose faster and with fewer typos!

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