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About this tool
Plan bind mounts, named volumes and tmpfs mounts with correct -v, --mount and Compose syntax, read-only flags and propagation.
The Docker Volume Mount Planner turns one mount description — bind, named volume or tmpfs — into the four syntaxes Docker actually accepts: the `-v` short flag, the explicit `--mount` flag, and Compose short and long syntax. It applies the rules from the Docker Engine storage documentation and the Compose file specification, including the daemon's volume-name pattern, the six bind-propagation modes with `rprivate` as the default, and the fact that SELinux `z`/`Z` relabelling works with `-v` but not with `--mount`. It is for developers writing Dockerfiles, run commands and compose.yaml who keep hitting the differences between the two flag styles.
Open Docker Volume Mount Planner on AltFTool — it loads instantly in your browser.
Choose a Mount type: Bind mount (host path), Named volume (Docker managed) or tmpfs (in-memory, Linux only).
Fill Host path (source) or Volume name (blank = anonymous) and Container path (target), then set Bind propagation, SELinux relabel or tmpfs size (blank = Docker default) and tick Mount read-only inside the container.
Four snippets are generated - docker run -v short flag, docker run --mount (explicit), Compose short syntax and Compose long syntax - alongside a Things to watch list; press Copy all.
`docker run -v ./src:/app` silently creates a volume named ./src — the planner flags that and tells you to use an absolute path or $(pwd).
read-only becomes `ro` in `-v`, `readonly` in `--mount` and `read_only: true` in Compose long syntax, and propagation only appears for bind mounts.
Bind propagation and tmpfs size have no short-syntax equivalent, so the long form is generated for you rather than looked up.
They do the same job, but `-v` packs everything into one colon-separated string while `--mount` uses explicit `key=value` pairs. The practical difference is error handling: with `-v`, a host path that does not exist is created as an empty directory, and a source that is not absolute is treated as a volume name — `--mount` errors instead. `--mount` is also the only form accepted by `docker service create`, while SELinux `z`/`Z` relabelling is only available with `-v` and Compose short syntax.
Use a named volume for anything that must outlive the container — databases, upload stores — because Docker manages it, it is portable across hosts, and an empty named volume is pre-populated with whatever the image already had at that path. Use a bind mount when you need the host's own files, such as live source code in development or a config file you edit locally. A bind mount shadows the image content at that path instead of copying it.
Append `:ro` in `-v` syntax (`-v /srv/conf:/etc/app:ro`), add `readonly` in `--mount` syntax (`--mount type=bind,source=/srv/conf,target=/etc/app,readonly`), or set `read_only: true` in Compose long syntax. Read-only applies to the mount only — the rest of the container filesystem stays writable unless you also set the container-level `read_only` flag.
It controls whether mounts created inside the bind propagate back to the host and vice versa. Docker's default is `rprivate`: nothing propagates in either direction. `rshared` propagates both ways, `rslave` propagates host to container only, and the non-r variants apply to the mount point alone rather than its submounts. Propagation applies to bind mounts on Linux only, and the source must already be a shared mount point on the host for `rshared` to work.