compose: docker compose - unknown shorthand flag: f

if it helps anyone else, I thought that I had run into this issue with the following command

docker compose up -f some/docker-compose.yml -d

however, after moving the up to the end:

docker compose -f some/docker-compose.yml up -d

it started working correctly.

just in case anyone else thinks they may have run into the same problem

git remote add origin https://github.com/<repo owner>/<repo name>.git git push -u origin main

Solution is apt install docker-compose and change your command to use docker-compose.

Have the same problem. I suppose it is not fixed yet. Docker seems not to understand when you are running docker commands vs docker compose commands when using the -f flag and sudo in Ubuntu. Some examples.

If I run docker compose -f some/docker-compose.yml up -d as suggested, I get a permission denied error. If I use sudo, docker thinks it’s a docker command, not a docker compose command.

Commands runned Option 1 sudo docker compose up -f docker-compose.dev.yml Result 1

See 'docker --help'.
Usage:  docker [OPTIONS] COMMAND
A self-sufficient runtime for containers
Run 'docker COMMAND --help' for more information on a command.

Option 2 sudo docker compose -f docker-compose.dev.yml up Result 2

See 'docker --help'.
Usage:  docker [OPTIONS] COMMAND
A self-sufficient runtime for containers
Run 'docker COMMAND --help' for more information on a command.

If anyone has a solution it would be very welcomed, otherwise I will have to switch to v1. Thanks!

Solved

Had to move the docker-compose script to be usable by root. Solution

if it helps anyone else, I thought that I had run into this issue with the following command

docker compose up -f some/docker-compose.yml -d

however, after moving the up to the end:

docker compose -f some/docker-compose.yml up -d

it started working correctly.

just in case anyone else thinks they may have run into the same problem

This is the correct answer. Do note the “–file” / “-f” flag is shown in docker-compose --help, and not docker-compose up --help, so it has to be before the up.

@MMendozaEscalona so you’re using a old version of Compose v1 (in python), and Compose v1 is end-of-life, please install the Compose v2, if you’re on linux follow this steps and if you’re using Docker Desktop verify you didn’t uncheck the Use Docker Compose V2 checkbox in Preferences view Maybe that the same for you @digitaltim-de?

Not sure if this will be helpful for anyone, but I ran across this issue when setting a cron executing docker compose commands.

My issue was that I had installed docker compose with a specific user, so running docker compose from the cron shell script (which default was using the root user) was interpreting it as the docker command itself (which doesn’t have an -f flag).

To correct this, I added sudo -u <user> in front of the docker compose ..., which ran the command from the user which had installed it.

@DrEsteban -f is unfortunately also used by some subcommand as shorthand for --format, so allowing use after command would create some more issues.

@michaelpeterlee @tangopium Can you share the result of docker compose version

This looks to be an issue with compose v2 (likely apt install installed the old v1 version)

let me transfer this issue to the compose issue tracker