How can I attach volumes with docker-compose only when in the development environment?

Question

In the quickstart: Compose and Django page in the docker-compose documentation, both the Dockerfile and docker-compose.yml files add . as /code, like this:

ADD . /code/

And a few lines later:

web:
    build: .
    command: python manage.py runserver 0.0.0.0:8000
    volumes:
      - .:/code

I'm guessing this is done so that when in development, you wouldn't constantly have to rebuild the image, and when using docker build the image is built with the source code already inside, so that in production, you could simply do docker run to get a container up. Is that correct?

If so, the question is, how can I create a docker-compose.yml to either attach a volume or don't do it based on whether I'm creating a production or a development stack?

Answer 1

Minutes after posting this question, I came upon a page that had a few tips on how to do this. Here is how I think it must be done:

1. You define a docker-compose.yml that attaches the volume. However, in your Dockerfile you still keep the original ADD or COPY instruction.

2. You also define a production.yml file which doesn't include the similarities between your development and production systems. However, it does include the changes you want to make in your production environment. For example, the volumes section would probably be like this:

   volumes: {}

Now, when you run docker-compose in production, you do it like this:

$ docker-compose -f docker-compose.yml -f production.yml up

Here is the link to Using Compose in Production for reference.