Docker Compose build properties
Applies to: 
Visual Studio 
Visual Studio for Mac
Note
This article applies to Visual Studio 2017. If you're looking for the latest Visual Studio documentation, see Visual Studio documentation. We recommend upgrading to the latest version of Visual Studio. Download it here
In addition to the properties that control individual Docker projects, described in Container Tools build properties, you can also customize how Visual Studio builds your Docker Compose projects by setting the Docker Compose properties that MSBuild uses to build your solution. You can also control how the Visual Studio debugger runs your Docker Compose apps by setting file labels in Docker Compose configuration files.
How to set the MSBuild properties
To set the value of a property, edit the project file. For Docker Compose properties, this project file is the one with a .dcproj extension, unless otherwise indicated in the table in the next section. For example, suppose you want to specify to launch the browser when you start debugging. You can set the DockerLaunchAction property in the .dcproj project file as follows.
<PropertyGroup>
<DockerLaunchAction>LaunchBrowser</DockerLaunchAction>
</PropertyGroup>
You can add the property setting to an existing PropertyGroup element, or if there isn't one, create a new PropertyGroup element.
Docker Compose MSBuild properties
The following table shows the MSBuild properties available for Docker Compose projects.
| Property name | Location | Description | Default value |
|---|---|---|---|
| AdditionalComposeFilePaths | dcproj | Specifies additional compose files in a semicolon-delimited list to be sent out to docker-compose.exe for all commands. Relative paths from the docker-compose project file (dcproj) are allowed. | - |
| DockerComposeBaseFilePath | dcproj | Specifies the first part of the filenames of the docker-compose files, without the .yml extension. For example: 1. DockerComposeBaseFilePath = null/undefined: use the base file path docker-compose, and files will be named docker-compose.yml and docker-compose.override.yml. 2. DockerComposeBaseFilePath = mydockercompose: files will be named mydockercompose.yml and mydockercompose.override.yml. 3. DockerComposeBaseFilePath = ..\mydockercompose: files will be up one level. |
docker-compose |
| DockerComposeBuildArguments | dcproj | Specifies the extra parameters to pass to the docker-compose build command. For example, --parallel --pull. |
|
| DockerComposeDownArguments | dcproj | Specifies the extra parameters to pass to the docker-compose down command. For example, --timeout 500. |
- |
| DockerComposeProjectName | dcproj | If specified, overrides the project name for a docker-compose project. | "dockercompose" + auto-generated hash |
| DockerComposeProjectPath | csproj or vbproj | The relative path to the docker-compose project (dcproj) file. Set this property when publishing the service project to find the associated image build settings stored in the docker-compose.yml file. | - |
| DockerComposeProjectsToIgnore | dcproj | Specifies projects to be ignored by docker-compose tools during debug. This property can be used for any project. File paths can be specified one of two ways: 1. Relative to dcproj. For example, <DockerComposeProjectsToIgnore>path\to\AngularProject1.csproj</DockerComposeProjectsToIgnore>. 2. Absolute paths. Note: The paths should be separated by the delimiter character ;. |
- |
| DockerComposeUpArguments | dcproj | Specifies the extra parameters to pass to the docker-compose up command. For example, --timeout 500. |
- |
| DockerDevelopmentMode | dcproj | Controls whether the user project is built in the container. The allowed values of Fast or Regular control which stages are built in a Dockerfile. The Debug configuration is Fast mode by default and Regular mode otherwise. | Fast |
| DockerLaunchAction | dcproj | Specifies the launch action to perform on F5 or Ctrl+F5. Allowed values are None, LaunchBrowser, and LaunchWCFTestClient. | None |
| DockerLaunchBrowser | dcproj | Indicates whether to launch the browser. Ignored if DockerLaunchAction is specified. | False |
| DockerServiceName | dcproj | If DockerLaunchAction or DockerLaunchBrowser are specified, then DockerServiceName specifies which service referenced in the docker-compose file gets launched. | - |
| DockerServiceUrl | dcproj | The URL to use when launching the browser. Valid replacement tokens are "{ServiceIPAddress}", "{ServicePort}", and "{Scheme}". For example: {Scheme}://{ServiceIPAddress}:{ServicePort} | - |
| DockerTargetOS | dcproj | The target OS used when building the Docker image. | - |
Example
If you change the location of the docker compose files, by setting DockerComposeBaseFilePath to a relative path, then you also need to make sure that the build context is changed so that it references the solution folder. For example, if your docker compose file is a folder called DockerComposeFiles, then docker compose file should set the build context to ".." or "../..", depending on where it is relative to the solution folder.
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<Project ToolsVersion="15.0" Sdk="Microsoft.Docker.Sdk">
<PropertyGroup Label="Globals">
<ProjectVersion>2.1</ProjectVersion>
<DockerTargetOS>Windows</DockerTargetOS>
<ProjectGuid>154022c1-8014-4e9d-bd78-6ff46670ffa4</ProjectGuid>
<DockerLaunchAction>LaunchBrowser</DockerLaunchAction>
<DockerServiceUrl>{Scheme}://{ServiceIPAddress}{ServicePort}</DockerServiceUrl>
<DockerServiceName>webapplication1</DockerServiceName>
<DockerComposeBaseFilePath>DockerComposeFiles\mydockercompose</DockerComposeBaseFilePath>
<AdditionalComposeFilePaths>AdditionalComposeFiles\myadditionalcompose.yml</AdditionalComposeFilePaths>
</PropertyGroup>
<ItemGroup>
<None Include="DockerComposeFiles\mydockercompose.override.yml">
<DependentUpon>DockerComposeFiles\mydockercompose.yml</DependentUpon>
</None>
<None Include="DockerComposeFiles\mydockercompose.yml" />
<None Include=".dockerignore" />
</ItemGroup>
</Project>
The mydockercompose.yml file should look like this, with the build context set to the relative path of the solution folder (in this case, ..).
version: '3.4'
services:
webapplication1:
image: ${DOCKER_REGISTRY-}webapplication1
build:
context: ..
dockerfile: WebApplication1\Dockerfile
Note
DockerComposeBuildArguments, DockerComposeDownArguments, and DockerComposeUpArguments are new in Visual Studio 2019 version 16.3.
Overriding Visual Studio's Docker Compose configuration
Typically docker-compose.override.yml is used to override certain settings in docker-compose.yml. Additionally, Visual Studio generates override files docker-compose.vs.debug.g,yml (for Fast mode) and docker-compose.vs.release.g.yml (for Regular mode) files with settings that are specific to running the application inside Visual Studio. You can override these Visual Studio settings by placing a file named docker-compose.vs.debug.yml (for Fast mode) or docker-compose.vs.release.yml (for Regular mode) in the same directory as your docker-compose.yml file. Right click the docker-compose project and select Open Folder in File Explorer , then use Add > Existing Item to add the file to your docker-compose project.
Tip
To find out the default values for any of the Visual Studio settings, look in the intermediate output directory (for example, obj/Docker) for docker-compose.vs.debug.g.yml or docker-compose.vs.release.g.yml. These files are generated by Visual Studio and should not be modified.
Docker Compose file labels
In docker-compose.vs.debug.yml or docker-compose.vs.release.yml, you can define override-specific labels as follows:
services:
webapplication1:
labels:
com.microsoft.visualstudio.debuggee.workingdirectory: "C:\\my_app_folder"
Use double quotes around the values, as in the preceding example, and use the backslash as an escape character for backslashes in paths.
Customize the Docker build process
You can declare which stage to build in your Dockerfile by using the target setting in the build property. This override can be used in only the docker-compose.vs.debug.yml or docker-compose.vs.release.yml
services:
webapplication1:
build:
target: customStage
labels:
...
Customize the app startup process
You can run a command or custom script before launching your app by using the entrypoint setting, and making it dependent on the DockerDevelopmentMode. For example, if you need to set up a certificate only in Fast mode by running update-ca-certificates, but not in Regular mode, you could add the following code in only docker-compose.vs.debug.yml:
services:
webapplication1:
entrypoint: "sh -c 'update-ca-certificates && tail -f /dev/null'"
labels:
...
Next steps
For information on MSBuild properties generally, see MSBuild Properties.
See also
Container Tools build properties
Container Tools launch settings