2nd chunk of `content/manuals/compose/how-tos/multiple-compose-files/extends.md`
6dff6d87f637eefd9996d9afb535df7e5b1b727726aa3a900000000100000f30
volumes:
- "/data"
```
You get exactly the same result as if you wrote
`compose.yaml` with the same `build`, `ports`, and `volumes` configuration
values defined directly under `web`.
To include the service `webapp` in the final project when extending services from another file, you need to explicitly include both services in your current Compose file. For example (note this is a non-normative example):
```yaml
services:
web:
build: alpine
command: echo
extends:
file: common-services.yml
service: webapp
webapp:
extends:
file: common-services.yml
service: webapp
```
Alternatively, you can use [include](include.md).
### Extending services within the same file
If you define services in the same Compose file and extend one service from another, both the original service and the extended service will be part of your final configuration. For example:
```yaml
services:
web:
build: alpine
extends: webapp
webapp:
environment:
- DEBUG=1
```
### Extending services within the same file and from another file
You can go further and define, or re-define, configuration locally in
`compose.yaml`:
```yaml
services:
web:
extends:
file: common-services.yml
service: webapp
environment:
- DEBUG=1
cpu_shares: 5
important_web:
extends: web
cpu_shares: 10
```
## Additional example
Extending an individual service is useful when you have multiple services that
have a common configuration. The example below is a Compose app with two
services, a web application and a queue worker. Both services use the same
codebase and share many configuration options.
The `common.yaml` file defines the common configuration:
```yaml
services:
app:
build: .
environment:
CONFIG_FILE_PATH: /code/config
API_KEY: xxxyyy
cpu_shares: 5
```
The `compose.yaml` defines the concrete services which use the common
configuration:
```yaml
services:
webapp:
extends:
file: common.yaml
service: app
command: /code/run_web_app
ports:
- 8080:8080
depends_on:
- queue
- db
queue_worker:
extends:
file: common.yaml
service: app
command: /code/run_worker
depends_on:
- queue
```
## Exceptions and limitations
`volumes_from` and `depends_on` are never shared between services using
`extends`. These exceptions exist to avoid implicit dependencies; you always
define `volumes_from` locally. This ensures dependencies between services are
clearly visible when reading the current file. Defining these locally also
ensures that changes to the referenced file don't break anything.
`extends` is useful if you only need a single service to be shared and you are
familiar with the file you're extending to, so you can tweak the
configuration. But this isn’t an acceptable solution when you want to re-use
someone else's unfamiliar configurations and you don’t know about its own
dependencies.
## Relative paths
When using `extends` with a `file` attribute which points to another folder, relative paths
declared by the service being extended are converted so they still point to the
same file when used by the extending service. This is illustrated in the following example:
Base Compose file:
```yaml
services:
webapp:
image: example
extends:
file: ../commons/compose.yaml
service: base
```
The `commons/compose.yaml` file:
```yaml
services:
base:
env_file: ./container.env
```
The resulting service refers to the original `container.env` file
within the `commons` directory. This can be confirmed with `docker compose config`
which inspects the actual model:
```yaml
services:
webapp:
image: example
env_file:
- ../commons/container.env
```
## Reference information
- [`extends`](/reference/compose-file/services.md#extends)