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Start Docker Compose on Boot

You want your Docker Compose stack to start automatically if your server reboots. There are two main ways to do this.

Method 1: Restart Policies (Easiest)​

The simplest way is to let the Docker daemon handle it. Add restart: always or restart: unless-stopped to every service in your docker-compose.yml.

services:
  web:
    image: nginx
    restart: unless-stopped
  db:
    image: postgres
    restart: unless-stopped
  • always: Always restart the container if it stops.
  • unless-stopped: Restart the container unless it was arbitrarily stopped (by docker stop). This is the recommended default.

How it works: When the Docker daemon starts (on boot), it checks for containers with these policies and starts them. You don't need a separate systemd service for the stack, just for the Docker engine itself (which is enabled by default on most Linux distros).

Method 2: Systemd Service (Advanced)​

If you need more control (e.g., dependencies on other system services, or you want to manage the whole stack as a unit), you can create a systemd unit.

  1. Create a service file: /etc/systemd/system/my-app.service
[Unit]
Description=My Docker Compose App
Requires=docker.service
After=docker.service

[Service]
Type=oneshot
RemainAfterExit=yes
WorkingDirectory=/path/to/your/project
ExecStart=/usr/bin/docker compose up -d --remove-orphans
ExecStop=/usr/bin/docker compose down

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target
  1. Enable and start it:
sudo systemctl enable my-app
sudo systemctl start my-app

Which one to use?​

  • Use Restart Policies for 99% of cases. It's portable (part of the YAML) and simple.
  • Use Systemd only if you need to ensure the entire stack is brought up/down together in a specific way relative to the host OS.

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