# Install Docker Compose
You can run Compose on OS X and 64-bit Linux. It is currently not supported on
the Windows operating system. To install Compose, you'll need to install Docker
first.
To install Compose, do the following:
1. Install Docker Engine version 1.7.1 or greater:
* Mac OS X installation (Toolbox installation includes both Engine and Compose)
* Ubuntu installation
* other system installations
2. Mac OS X users are done installing. Others should continue to the next step.
3. Go to the Compose repository release page on GitHub.
4. Follow the instructions from the release page and run the `curl` command in your terminal.
> Note: If you get a "Permission denied" error, your `/usr/local/bin` directory
probably isn't writable and you'll need to install Compose as the superuser. Run
`sudo -i`, then the two commands below, then `exit`.
The command has the following format:
curl -L https://github.com/docker/compose/releases/download/VERSION_NUM/docker-compose-`uname -s`-`uname -m` > /usr/local/bin/docker-compose
If you have problems installing with `curl`, see
[Alternative Install Options](#alternative-install-options).
5. Apply executable permissions to the binary:
$ chmod +x /usr/local/bin/docker-compose
6. Optionally, install [command completion](completion.md) for the
`bash` and `zsh` shell.
7. Test the installation.
$ docker-compose --version
docker-compose version: 1.4.2
## Alternative install options
### Install using pip
Compose can be installed from [pypi](https://pypi.python.org/pypi/docker-compose)
using `pip`. If you install using `pip` it is highly recommended that you use a
[virtualenv](https://virtualenv.pypa.io/en/latest/) because many operating systems
have python system packages that conflict with docker-compose dependencies. See
the [virtualenv tutorial](http://docs.python-guide.org/en/latest/dev/virtualenvs/)
to get started.
$ pip install docker-compose
### Install as a container
Compose can also be run inside a container, from a small bash script wrapper.
To install compose as a container run:
$ curl -L https://github.com/docker/compose/releases/download/1.5.0/run.sh > /usr/local/bin/docker-compose
$ chmod +x /usr/local/bin/docker-compose
## Master builds
If you're interested in trying out a pre-release build you can download a
binary from https://dl.bintray.com/docker-compose/master/. Pre-release
builds allow you to try out new features before they are released, but may
be less stable.
## Upgrading
If you're upgrading from Compose 1.2 or earlier, you'll need to remove or migrate
your existing containers after upgrading Compose. This is because, as of version
1.3, Compose uses Docker labels to keep track of containers, and so they need to
be recreated with labels added.
If Compose detects containers that were created without labels, it will refuse
to run so that you don't end up with two sets of them. If you want to keep using
your existing containers (for example, because they have data volumes you want
to preserve) you can migrate them with the following command:
$ docker-compose migrate-to-labels
Alternatively, if you're not worried about keeping them, you can remove them.
Compose will just create new ones.
$ docker rm -f -v myapp_web_1 myapp_db_1 ...
## Uninstallation
To uninstall Docker Compose if you installed using `curl`:
$ rm /usr/local/bin/docker-compose
To uninstall Docker Compose if you installed using `pip`:
$ pip uninstall docker-compose
>**Note**: If you get a "Permission denied" error using either of the above
>methods, you probably do not have the proper permissions to remove
>`docker-compose`. To force the removal, prepend `sudo` to either of the above
>commands and run again.
## Where to go next
- [User guide](/)
- [Get started with Django](django.md)
- [Get started with Rails](rails.md)
- [Get started with WordPress](wordpress.md)
- [Command line reference](./reference/index.md)
- [Yaml file reference](yml.md)