Docker Compose wait for container X before starting Y

Finally found a solution with a docker-compose method. Since docker-compose file format 2.1 you can define healthchecks.

I did it in a example project
you need to install at least docker 1.12.0+.
I also needed to extend the rabbitmq-management Dockerfile, because curl isn’t installed on the official image.

Now I test if the management page of the rabbitmq-container is available. If curl finishes with exitcode 0 the container app (python pika) will be started and publish a message to hello queue. Its now working (output).

docker-compose (version 2.1):

version: '2.1'

services:
  app:
    build: app/.
    depends_on:
      rabbit:
        condition: service_healthy
    links: 
        - rabbit

  rabbit:
    build: rabbitmq/.
    ports: 
        - "15672:15672"
        - "5672:5672"
    healthcheck:
        test: ["CMD", "curl", "-f", "http://localhost:15672"]
        interval: 30s
        timeout: 10s
        retries: 5

output:

rabbit_1  | =INFO REPORT==== 25-Jan-2017::14:44:21 ===
rabbit_1  | closing AMQP connection <0.718.0> (172.18.0.3:36590 -> 172.18.0.2:5672)
app_1     |  [x] Sent 'Hello World!'
healthcheckcompose_app_1 exited with code 0

Dockerfile (rabbitmq + curl):

FROM rabbitmq:3-management
RUN apt-get update
RUN apt-get install -y curl 
EXPOSE 4369 5671 5672 25672 15671 15672

Version 3 no longer supports the condition form of depends_on.
So i moved from depends_on to restart on-failure. Now my app container will restart 2-3 times until it is working, but it is still a docker-compose feature without overwriting the entrypoint.

docker-compose (version 3):

version: "3"

services:

  rabbitmq: # login guest:guest
    image: rabbitmq:management
    ports:
    - "4369:4369"
    - "5671:5671"
    - "5672:5672"
    - "25672:25672"
    - "15671:15671"
    - "15672:15672"
    healthcheck:
        test: ["CMD", "curl", "-f", "http://localhost:15672"]
        interval: 30s
        timeout: 10s
        retries: 5

  app:
    build: ./app/
    environment:
      - HOSTNAMERABBIT=rabbitmq
    restart: on-failure
    depends_on:
      - rabbitmq
    links: 
        - rabbitmq