Unsupported Compose Features in IGEL Managed Containers

An IMC container is defined by a Compose file whose path is set in the per-container settings. IMC treats each Compose file as the definition of a single container.

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Each unsupported feature falls into one of two behavior categories:

Behavior	Meaning
Rejected	Container creation fails. No container is created.
Not supported	The Compose file is accepted and the container is created, but the feature does not behave as it normally would with a Compose provider. It may be silently ignored, applied only in part, or applied without being tracked by IMC. It must not be relied upon.

Multiple Services & Orchestration

IMC is a single-container system and supports exactly one service per Compose file. Defining multiple services in a Compose file is unsupported and may result in undefined behavior.

IMC does not perform any orchestration logic.

Feature	Behavior	Notes
Multiple `services` in one file	Not supported	Outcome is undefined.
`depends_on`	Not supported	With a single service there is nothing to depend on.
`profiles`	Rejected	Container creation fails if under a profile.
`deploy`, `scale`	Not supported	Scaling, placement, and resource directives are ignored. IMC runs one instance.

Building Images

Feature	Behavior	Notes
`build` (Dockerfile build)	Rejected	IMC never builds images. The image must already exist locally or be available from the configured registry.

Guidance: Reference a pre-built image via image. Build and push images outside of IMC.

Volumes & Mounts

For persistent storage, containers should bind-mount data under the /services_rw/imc/container_data/volumes/ directory. For more information, see How to Configure Persistent Storage for Containers in IGEL Managed Containers.

The following directories may also be mounted, but the data will not persist across reboots: /logging, /media and /tmp.

Feature	Behavior	Notes
Named or anonymous `volumes`	Not supported	Mounts of type `volume` (named or anonymous) are not removed when the container they are attached to is removed, which can leave orphaned data on the storage partition.
Bind mounts to arbitrary host paths	Rejected	Container is not created if source path is not allowed.

Compose File Location & Naming

Feature	Behavior	Notes
Compose file outside the configured config directory	Rejected	Files must reside directly in the configuration directory (`/services_rw/imc/config`). Sub-directories are not allowed.
File path containing characters outside `A–Z a–z 0–9 / _ . - (space)`	Rejected	Path validation rejects characters outside the allowed set.

Other Unsupported Settings

These settings are accepted in the Compose file but are not tracked or surfaced by IMC. They must not be relied upon.

Feature	Behavior	Notes
`restart` policies	Not supported	IMC owns start/stop/restart; restart policy is not reflected in IMC's state.
`healthcheck`	Not supported	Health status is not surfaced by IMC.
`secrets` / `configs` (top-level Compose objects)	Not supported	Registry credentials are handled by IMC settings, not Compose secrets.
`extends` / `include` / merging multiple Compose files	Not supported	IMC loads a single file only.
`.env` files / variable interpolation	Rejected / Not supported	Rejected if used in the source of a bind-mount volume; otherwise, not resolved or validated by IMC.

Key Paths (Reference)

Purpose	Path
Compose file directory	`/services_rw/imc/config/`
Recommended read-write bind location for container data	`/services_rw/imc/container_data/volumes/`