title: Difference between service and container in docker compose
body: <p>I was going through <code>volumes_from</code> option in docker compose. Apparently you can import a volumes from either a container or a service. From the docker compose documentation it is:</p>
  
  <blockquote>
    <p><strong>volumes_from</strong></p>
    
    <p>Mount all of the volumes from another service or container, optionally
    specifying read-only access(ro) or read-write(rw).</p>
  
  <pre><code>volumes_from:
   - service_name
   - service_name:ro
   - container:container_name
   - container:container_name:rw
  </code></pre>
    
    <p>Note: The container:... formats are only supported in the version 2
    file format. In version 1, you can use container names without marking
    them as such:</p>
  
  <pre><code>- service_name
  - service_name:ro
  - container_name
  - container_name:rw
  </code></pre>
  </blockquote>
  
  <p>I am confused here what is the difference between containers and services here?</p>