docker compose build single container

Question

Yes, use the name of the service:

docker-compose build elasticsearch

docker-compose up -d --no-deps --build <service_name>

Source

if you want to run and recreate a specific service inside your docker-compose file you can do it the same way as @dnephin proposed, like

$ docker-compose up -d --force-recreate --no-deps --build service_name

Suppose your docker-compose.yml file is like

version: '3'
services:
  service_1:
      .....
  service_2:
      .....

You could added --no-start flag to docker-compose, and start later since you will only build one service.