This can be solved with the mentioned depends_on
directive since it's implemented now (2016):
version: '2'
services:
nginx:
image: nginx
ports:
- "42080:80"
volumes:
- ./config/docker/nginx/default.conf:/etc/nginx/conf.d/default.conf:ro
depends_on:
- php
php:
build: config/docker/php
ports:
- "42022:22"
volumes:
- .:/var/www/html
env_file: config/docker/php/.env.development
depends_on:
- mongo
mongo:
image: mongo
ports:
- "42017:27017"
volumes:
- /var/mongodata/wa-api:/data/db
command: --smallfiles
Successfully tested with:
$ docker-compose version
docker-compose version 1.8.0, build f3628c7
Find more details in the documentation.
There is also a very interesting article dedicated to this topic: Controlling startup order in Compose