How to connect to a Redis container using Docker Compose?

Question

This docker-compose.yml seems to work OK:

version: '3' services:   web:     image: web-app     command: bundle exec rackup     ports:      - "9292:9292"     links:       - redis   redis:     image: redis 

Command:

docker build -t web-app .; docker-compose up 

The Web App is expecting a REDIS_URL config. Web App Dockerfile:

ENV REDIS_URL redis:6379 

It seems that the Web App cannot connect to the Redis:

Redis::CannotConnectError - Error connecting to Redis on 127.0.0.1:6379 (Errno::ECONNREFUSED): 

So, what is the Redis URL for the Web App?

Do I need to expose the Redis port (6379)?

EDIT:

Thanks to @Andy Shinn, I see the redis url should be redis://6379.
Now I get Errno::EINVAL - Invalid argument - connect(2) for 0.0.24.235:6379. This may have to do with Redis v 3.2.8. I'll try another version and see if it works.

EDIT #2:

3.2.8 works fine with the app on my local machine, so that is not the issue.

Answer 1

The issue is that redis is "variable" that will be interpolated in the Dockerfile.

ENV REDIS_URL redis:6379 

But the Redis URL should start with the literal redis.

So, the fix is updating the docker compose:

redis_db:   image: redis:3.2.8 

The desired config is:

REDIS_URL=redis://redis_db:6379 

Thanks to BMitch and Andy Shinn for helping me figure this out.