I think there’s a misunderstanding. In the docker-compose.yml, you specify services, and these services can use the official container images. The only thing the docker-compose actually does is define your services so you don’t have to specify them each time starting a container.

You can run it from an image without docker-compose but I’d recommend looking into docker-compose if you’re not already familiar with it. @CannaVet@lemmy.world has the idea right that it’s just a powerful installation file and can automate your docker management process rather well if you’re using it a lot.

You can build a container from an image but it’s obviously more hands-on. Lemmy may have additional dependencies they include in the compose file that may not be present in the image source. but starting with something like

$ docker run --pull=always --restart=unless-stopped -d -p 80:8080 -v YOUR/PATH/TO/DATA:/data --name lemmy_backend [LEMMYREPO]:latest

and configure that using proper configuration ( the links @Elbullazul@lem.elbullazul.com posted) - reference this for how to do that!

Be prepped for manual updates, though 😳