Compose: docker-compose up -p NAME not working

[KiraResari]

Description of the issue

According to the docker-compose CLI documentation, it should be possible to set the name of a docker-compose Project using the -p flag.

-p, --project-name NAME Specify an alternate project name (default: directory name)

However, whenever I try that, the only thing that happens is that the docker-compose on-screen reference is displayed, indicating that my command was not understood by the parser.

For example running docker-compose up -d -p Test for a docker-compos.yml File that normally works returns returns the following:

````
Builds, (re)creates, starts, and attaches to containers for a service.

Unless they are already running, this command also starts any linked services.

The docker-compose up command aggregates the output of each container. When
the command exits, all containers are stopped. Running docker-compose up -d
starts the containers in the background and leaves them running.

If there are existing containers for a service, and the service's configuration
or image was changed after the container's creation, docker-compose up picks
up the changes by stopping and recreating the containers (preserving mounted
volumes). To prevent Compose from picking up changes, use the --no-recreate
flag.

If you want to force Compose to stop and recreate all containers, use the
--force-recreate flag.

Usage: up [options] [--scale SERVICE=NUM...] [SERVICE...]

Options:
-d, --detach Detached mode: Run containers in the background,
print new container names. Incompatible with
--abort-on-container-exit.
--no-color Produce monochrome output.
--quiet-pull Pull without printing progress information
--no-deps Don't start linked services.
--force-recreate Recreate containers even if their configuration
and image haven't changed.
--always-recreate-deps Recreate dependent containers.
Incompatible with --no-recreate.
--no-recreate If containers already exist, don't recreate
them. Incompatible with --force-recreate and -V.
--no-build Don't build an image, even if it's missing.
--no-start Don't start the services after creating them.
--build Build images before starting containers.
--abort-on-container-exit Stops all containers if any container was
stopped. Incompatible with -d.
-t, --timeout TIMEOUT Use this timeout in seconds for container
shutdown when attached or when containers are
already running. (default: 10)
-V, --renew-anon-volumes Recreate anonymous volumes instead of retrieving
data from the previous containers.
--remove-orphans Remove containers for services not defined
in the Compose file.
--exit-code-from SERVICE Return the exit code of the selected service
container. Implies --abort-on-container-exit.
--scale SERVICE=NUM Scale SERVICE to NUM instances. Overrides the
scale setting in the Compose file if present.
````

Said docker-compose.yml file looks like this:

````
version: "3.2"
services:
foobar-database_1453:
build:
context: ./database
dockerfile: Dockerfile
ports:
- "1453:1433"
container_name: foobar-database_container_1453
environment:
- ACCEPT_EULA=Y
- sa_password=Secret

networks:
default:
external:
name: nat
````

The background behind this is that we want to use Docker to deploy "clones" of our application with different settings to different ports on the same server (so we have for example a foobar-database_container_1443, a foobar-database_container_1453 and so on...) . Doing that without defining a project name to docker-compose results in the following warning:

Found orphan containers (foobar-database_container_1443) for this project. If you removed or renamed this service in your compose file, you can run this command with the --remove-orphans flag to clean it up. Recreating foobar-database_container_1453 ...

I have also tried setting the project name as an environment variable in the relevant docker-compose.yml files like this:

environment: - ACCEPT_EULA=Y - sa_password=Secret - COMPOSE_PROJECT_NAME=foobar-database_1443

...but that did not have any effect.

So, long story made short: The -p flag as written in the Documentation is not working for me, the alternative of setting the project name as an environment variable is not working either, and I thus have no idea how I am supposed to set the project name for docker-compose to get rid of the false detection of "orphan containers".

Context information (for bug reports)

Output of docker-compose version

(paste here)

Output of docker version

Client: Docker Engine - Community
 Version:           18.09.0
 API version:       1.39
 Go version:        go1.10.4
 Git commit:        4d60db4
 Built:             Wed Nov  7 00:47:51 2018
 OS/Arch:           windows/amd64
 Experimental:      false

Server: Docker Engine - Community
 Engine:
  Version:          18.09.0
  API version:      1.39 (minimum version 1.24)
  Go version:       go1.10.4
  Git commit:       4d60db4
  Built:            Wed Nov  7 00:56:41 2018
  OS/Arch:          windows/amd64
  Experimental:     false

Output of docker-compose config

networks:
  default:
    external: true
    name: nat
services:
  foobar-database_1443:
    build:
      context: C:\Octopus\Deployments\Docker-Foobar-Default\Docker-Foobar-Database\database
      dockerfile: Dockerfile
    container_name: foobar-database_container_1443
    environment:
      ACCEPT_EULA: "Y"
      COMPOSE_PROJECT_NAME: foobar-database_1443
      sa_password: Secret
    ports:
    - published: 1443
      target: 1433
version: '3.7'

Steps to reproduce the issue

1. Prepare a valid docker-compose.yml to mirror the above one
2. Try to run it using docker-compose up -d -p Test

Observed result

On-screen explanation of some of the functionalities of docker-compose is displayed on screen, which implies that the command was not understood, see above.

Expected result

The project should be built as defined in the docker-compose.yml and given the project name as defined in the -p flag

Stacktrace / full error message

Builds, (re)creates, starts, and attaches to containers for a service.

Unless they are already running, this command also starts any linked services.

The `docker-compose up` command aggregates the output of each container. When
the command exits, all containers are stopped. Running `docker-compose up -d`
starts the containers in the background and leaves them running.

If there are existing containers for a service, and the service's configuration
or image was changed after the container's creation, `docker-compose up` picks
up the changes by stopping and recreating the containers (preserving mounted
volumes). To prevent Compose from picking up changes, use the `--no-recreate`
flag.

If you want to force Compose to stop and recreate all containers, use the
`--force-recreate` flag.

Usage: up [options] [--scale SERVICE=NUM...] [SERVICE...]

Options:
    -d, --detach               Detached mode: Run containers in the background,
                               print new container names. Incompatible with
                               --abort-on-container-exit.
    --no-color                 Produce monochrome output.
    --quiet-pull               Pull without printing progress information
    --no-deps                  Don't start linked services.
    --force-recreate           Recreate containers even if their configuration
                               and image haven't changed.
    --always-recreate-deps     Recreate dependent containers.
                               Incompatible with --no-recreate.
    --no-recreate              If containers already exist, don't recreate
                               them. Incompatible with --force-recreate and -V.
    --no-build                 Don't build an image, even if it's missing.
    --no-start                 Don't start the services after creating them.
    --build                    Build images before starting containers.
    --abort-on-container-exit  Stops all containers if any container was
                               stopped. Incompatible with -d.
    -t, --timeout TIMEOUT      Use this timeout in seconds for container
                               shutdown when attached or when containers are
                               already running. (default: 10)
    -V, --renew-anon-volumes   Recreate anonymous volumes instead of retrieving
                               data from the previous containers.
    --remove-orphans           Remove containers for services not defined
                               in the Compose file.
    --exit-code-from SERVICE   Return the exit code of the selected service
                               container. Implies --abort-on-container-exit.
    --scale SERVICE=NUM        Scale SERVICE to NUM instances. Overrides the
                               `scale` setting in the Compose file if present.

Additional information

Using Docker for Windows to deploy Windows Containers.

[shin-]

-p needs to appear before the subcommand (e.g. up) to be parsed correctly.

[KiraResari]

Ah, okay, that explains it. There was no working code sample on the documentation, so I just naively assumed that the -p flag would need to go at the same place as the -d flag.

I honestly don't understand why these two flags need to be separated to work, but this fixed my issue, so thank you very much for your swift and accurate help! =^,^=

Also, for the sake of future docker-compose users, I would like to have a working code sample included on the dockerfile CLI reference page to illustrate the proper use of this flag in the "Use -p to specify a project name" section. Is there any way I can help with that? Or don't I have the security clearance for that?