Docker have created an open community for developing the Compose specification to help developers build cloud-native applications using Compose. There have been different implementations of Docker compose in order to make it work in platforms like Kubernetes or AWS ECS. But Docker wants to work with the community to provide better support and define the future of Compose. The Compose spec has been created to let people use compose in different platforms and make any new features as a first-class feature in Compose.

InfoQ recently talked to Justin Cormack, security lead at Docker, to learn more about the Compose specification community.

InfoQ: What is the Compose specification community? What type of problems is the spec looking to solve?

Justin Cormack: Originally, there was only one implementation, the Docker compose in Python. But there have been more implementations where they’ve looked at what Docker compose does and tried to copy as much of it as possible. But sometimes they’re doing different things. Even within Docker, we have three different implementations like Docker compose for Kubernetes or Swarm. So, all these implementations had to copy what we did and then try to make it work, but they didn’t get any real influence on how to implement Docker compose on different platforms.

The Compose spec is to let people use compose in different platforms and make any new features as a first-class feature in Compose, allowing the community to influence how the spec progress. We knew there were problems with running compose on Kubernetes because it does networks and volumes differently. And other platforms like AWS ECS has its implementation to interact with other AWS services. So we thought the best thing to do is to make an open spec to help people use compose within other platforms different than Docker Swarm or the desktop.

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