docker-compose up for only certain containers

Question

I have a docker-compose.yml which contain several containers. Three of them are for my app (client, server and database) and the rest are for various dev tools

Answer 1

To start a particular service defined in your docker-compose file. for example if your have a docker-compose.yml

sudo docker-compose start db  

given a compose file like as:

version: '3.3'

services:
   db:
     image: mysql:5.7
     ports:
       - "3306:3306"
     volumes:
       - ./db_data:/var/lib/mysql
     restart: always
     environment:
       MYSQL_ROOT_PASSWORD: yourPassword
       MYSQL_DATABASE: wordpress
       MYSQL_USER: wordpress
       MYSQL_PASSWORD: yourPassword

   wordpress:
     depends_on:
       - db
     image: wordpress:latest
     ports:
       - "80:80"
     volumes:
       - ./l3html:/var/www/html
     restart: always
     environment:
       WORDPRESS_DB_HOST: db:3306
       WORDPRESS_DB_USER: wordpress
       WORDPRESS_DB_PASSWORD: yourPassword
volumes:
    db_data:
    l3html:

Some times you want to start mySQL only (sometimes you just want to populate a database) before you start your entire suite.