Linking 2 docker container together via creating services (swarm mode) by using docker api

Question

I am using docker api to create containers, networks, services etc but my requirement is that I want my public facing container to communicate with another container running on the same network. For that to happen I can use container names as the hostname along with the port through which I am trying to connect my non-public facing container.

I am not able to find the name of the container via any service related api. I can definitely use docker-compose's link feature but I am trying to do that via a API. Can anyone help me with this?

Answer 1

You can define the requirements for network in docker-compose.yml. See the example in https://docs.docker.com/compose/compose-file/#aliases. In your case, you may not need aliases, but the example in that section has an example.

By default, all the services defined in the compose file will be in one network.

If you want to do it by hand, https://docs.docker.com/engine/reference/commandline/network/ is the command you want. Use docker network create and multiple docker network connect for each of the containers.