ERROR: In file './docker-compose.yml', volume must be a mapping not a string

Question

Question: Why do I get this error?

ERROR: In file \'./docker-compose.yml\', volume \'mariavolume\' must be a mapping not a string.

Answer 1

I've just tackled this issue myself. If you just want a volume to store data, then do as below. This will create/reuse a volume that is persisted to disk as part of the Docker graph driver.

The next question is where is this?.

You can find it inside the docker image - Default Location -

C:\Users\Public\Documents\Hyper-V\Virtual hard disks

db:
  image: mariadb
  restart: always
  environment:
    MYSQL_ROOT_PASSWORD: example
  volumes:
    - maria_volume: /var/lib/mysql

volumes:
  maria_volume:

Of course, if you are after mapping a host directory into docker rather than having it inside the Docker graph driver. Then you can do it as follows.

db:
  image: mariadb
  restart: always
  environment:
    MYSQL_ROOT_PASSWORD: example
  volumes:
    - maria_volume: /var/lib/mysql

volumes:
  maria_volume:
    driver: local
    driver_opts:
      o: bind
      type: none
      device: /C/mariadb

Please note, when mapping over host directories as volume (at least on windows) you can have issues with read/write permissions, something I have yet to resolve myself.