Remove service on docker-compose through overriding - docker-compose

Question

I want to remove a container defined in docker-compose.yml file when we run in composition/override with another file docker-compose.prod.yml, by example:
# docker-compose.yml
version: 2
services:
www:
image: php56
db_for_development:
image: mariadb
override with:
# docker-compose.prod.yml
version: 2
services:
www:
image: php70
db_for_development:
[control: override-and-remove] # hypothesis
Then, when running:
docker-compose -f docker-compose.yml -f docker-compose.prod.yml up -d
docker-compose -f docker-compose.yml -f docker-compose.prod.yml ps
Actually, i have www and db_for_development together.
I want only www container, not others.

Answer 1

You may have to switch to version: 3 to do this, I believe on version: 2 you can use the "scale" parameter but I'm not 100% sure.
Anyways, you can override the "replicas" parameter like this:
# docker-compose.prod.yml
version: "3"
services:
db_for_development:
deploy:
replicas: 0

Answer 2

You're going about this backwards
docker-compose.yml -> specify all services that will be always running
docker-compose.override.yml -> gets picked up automatically, usually used for development
docker-compose.*.yml -> special cases
So, in your case:
You don't remove a container defined in docker-compose.yml, you add it by override with another file or customize it with docker-compose.prod.yml, by example:
docker-compose.yml -> this is the base
version: 2
services:
www:
image: php56
docker-compose.override.yml -> this is dev
version: 2
services:
db_for_development:
image: mariadb
docker-compose.production.yml -> this is prod
version: 2
services:
www:
environment:
- APP_ENV=production
env_file:
- /home/ubuntu/production-app
docker-compose.admin.yml -> this is for the dba
version: 2
services:
adminer:
image: adminer
restart: always
ports:
- 8080:8080
instructions:
For development, docker-compose.yml and docker-compose.override.yml will be used just by running
$ docker-compose up
Production, manually specify both files
$ docker-compose -f docker-compose.yml -f docker-compose.production.yml up --remove-orphans
If you want to bring also bring adminer up (not recommended for production, but sometimes needed anyways)
$ docker-compose -f docker-compose.yml -f docker-compose.production.yml -f docker-compose.admin.yml up
Lastly, when you're done with adminer, just run the production command again this will leave adminer running as an orphan, and you do not want that. That's why the flag --remove-orphans is for

Answer 3

Let's say you want to remove (disable) a service that's defined in your compose file
Contents of docker-compose.yml
version: "3.4"
services:
app:
restart: always
image: "rasa/rasa-x-demo:${RASA_X_DEMO_VERSION}"
expose:
- "5055"
depends_on:
- rasa-production
Contents of docker-compose.override.yml
version: "3.4"
services:
app:
image: alpine:latest
command: "true"
entrypoint: "true"
Done. Now your container will still launch but it's disabled using an empty image

Answer 4

This is not possible. Your only real option would be to specify the services (selectively) when running docker-compose up.