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Add flag similar to --pull always

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#1,161 4 comments 1 reaction 1 assignee View on GitHub

@v-Kaniska244 is already working on this.

Since Apr 28, 2026.

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Description

We are using devcontainer cli tools with dockerComposeFile. Our compose file has a number of dependency images.

Docker compose has docker compose --pull always flag that will

  1. Pull images if compose file was changed
  2. Re-create containers only for the services which images were changed

Unfortunately there're no alternatives in devcontainer cli tools:

  • We can use docker compose pull && devcontainer up but it won't re-create updated services;
  • We can use docker compose pull && devcontainer up --remove-existing-container but it will recreate the main (i.e. devcontainer) service even if image wasn't changed. We want to avoid re-creating the main service every time because it runs long postCreate scripts.

Is it possible to provide flag similar to --remove-existing-container that will be translated to --pull always that will recreate only changed services?

Dominant language
TypeScript
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