Rename docker-compose project without deleting volumes

Question

I want to rename a docker-compose project (i.e by renaming the directory or adding -p new_name to docker-compose). If I do so I'll remove all my old containers and also all my old volumes. Is there a way to keep the volumes and attach them to the new docker-compose container?

Example docker-compose.yml

version: '3'

services:
  dashboard:
    build: custom_dashboard
    volumes:
      - dashboard:/var/lib/grafana
    ports:
      - 3000:3000
volumes:
  dashboard:

The project name (and the directory name) was web and I want to change it to grafana. The Volume name was web_dashboard and will be grafana_dashboard.

I may could do it manually but I have a very huge docker-compose (but modularized) file with about 30 applications.

Answer 1

Try this work-around:

• Create a copy of the volume with the new name using the script:

  #!/bin/bash
  
  #Author: Guido Diepen
  
  #Convenience script that can help me to easily create a clone of a given
  #data volume. The script is mainly useful if you are using named volumes
  
  
  #First check if the user provided all needed arguments
  if [ "$1" = "" ]
  then
          echo "Please provide a source volume name"
          exit
  fi
  
  if [ "$2" = "" ] 
  then
          echo "Please provide a destination volume name"
          exit
  fi
  
  
  #Check if the source volume name does exist
  docker volume inspect $1 > /dev/null 2>&1
  if [ "$?" != "0" ]
  then
          echo "The source volume \"$1\" does not exist"
          exit
  fi
  
  #Now check if the destinatin volume name does not yet exist
  docker volume inspect $2 > /dev/null 2>&1
  
  if [ "$?" = "0" ]
  then
          echo "The destination volume \"$2\" already exists"
          exit
  fi
  
  
  
  echo "Creating destination volume \"$2\"..."
  docker volume create --name $2  
  echo "Copying data from source volume \"$1\" to destination volume \"$2\"..."
  docker run --rm \
             -i \
             -t \
             -v $1:/from \
             -v $2:/to \
             alpine ash -c "cd /from ; cp -av . /to"
  

• Delete the previous volume

Credit for the script goes to gdiepen , project: https://github.com/gdiepen/docker-convenience-scripts

Answer 2

There seems to be no way without renaming the volumes. This worked for me and was actually the fastest way:

I ended up with creating a new volume and moving manually the content of /var/lib/docker/volumes/old-volume/_data/

https://github.com/moby/moby/issues/31154#issuecomment-334844525

Answer 3

version: '3'

services:
  dashboard:
    build: custom_dashboard
    container_name: ${CONTAINER_NAME}
    volumes:
      - dashboard:/var/lib/grafana
    ports:
      - 3000:3000
    environment:
      - CONTAINER_NAME
volumes:
  dashboard:

Set container_name in your service like above. Then you have to pass the new project name to container_name through an env variable and the old project name to the -p parameter to keep the old volume with new container's name and new project name. E.g mv old_project new_project and CONTAINER_NAME=new_project docker-compose -p old_project up -d.