`docker compose up --wait` does not detach, `-d` required

[jurchiks]

The latest commit replaced -d/--detach with --wait, however it does not seem to work the way the documentation says it should, at least not on Windows.

According to Docker's own documentation (https://docs.docker.com/engine/reference/commandline/compose_up/):

--wait Wait for services to be running|healthy. Implies detached mode.

One might think this means that it runs the services, waits for them to be fully up, and THEN detaches implicitly, without requiring an explicit -d flag. However, if I run it with just --wait, it does not detach. One might say the documentation is wrong or incorrectly worded - wouldn't be the first time -, or maybe it's broken on Windows (I had Docker Desktop 4.21.1, updated to 4.22.0, still the same).

But then I found this article: https://maciejwalkowiak.com/blog/docker-compose-waiting-containers-ready/

And if I use --detach --wait, then it works as it should, so the code and documentation changes from the latest commit should be fixed.

Annoyingly, I tried clicking on "Edit this page" in the Docker documentation, but it lead me nowhere, and searching the repo it opened for Implies detached mode gave me no results, so I can't fix the wording myself.

[dunglas]

Thanks for the report. The docs are here (the link on their website is indeed broken): https://github.com/docker/compose/blob/v2/docs/reference/compose_up.md

This works as expected on my computer (Docker Desktop on macOS), IMHO this bug should be reported to Docker instead of here, but I'm not against adding --detach to the command.

[jurchiks]

This works as expected on my computer

Interesting... Well, I'm sure Docker isn't going to fix this anytime soon, so it's probably best to add it back for now.

[core1983]

In my case this command also not working properly. I'm using docker inside wsl distro, without installing docker desktop.

[7-zete-7]

Hi, @jurchiks, @core1983!

Sorry for reviving this issue after so long since it was closed 😅

@lermontex brought this issue to my attention and was curious about this behavior of Docker Compose. I'm trying to figure out a possible reason for this behavior to figure out the issue. Can you reproduce this issue now? Is it possible that you were using Docker Compose v1?

[jurchiks]

No, I was not using Compose v1. I haven't touched the project I used this on for more than a year now.

I found this:
https://github.com/docker/compose/blob/v2.20.0/cmd/compose/up.go#L129

According to patch notes:
https://docs.docker.com/desktop/release-notes/#4220
I should have had Docker Compose v2.20.2, which contains this assignment.
so this assignment should have been available and working... And yet it wasn't. And the code hasn't really changed much since then, so I have no reason to believe the problem has disappeared.

In any case, Docker's own source code tests use --wait together with -d/--detach, for whatever reason:
https://github.com/search?q=repo%3Adocker%2Fcompose%20--wait&type=code

Might as well try asking someone from the official Docker team about this.

[7-zete-7]

Thanks for the info, @jurchiks!

@ndeloof, can you help us figure out the problem @jurchiks is having? Is there a reason to leave the -d option for docker compose up when using the --wait option?

[ndeloof]

--detach is implied by --wait. Please provide a reproduction example and open an issue on github.com/docker/compose if you get anything wrong with this.

Docker's own source code tests use --wait together with -d/--detach, for whatever reason:

No reason. Explicitly setting this flag won't have any effect (ignored) as demonstrated by docker/compose#12731

[7-zete-7]

Thanks for your help, @ndeloof!

[jurchiks]

Then perhaps the problem is caused by WSL, somehow. Wouldn't be the first time, unfortunately...