taken from https://docs.docker.com/compose/install/
the only thing is that /usr is read only, but /opt/bin is writable and in the path, so:
sd-xx~ # mkdir /opt/bin sd-xx~ # curl -L https://github.com/docker/compose/releases/download/1.3.3/docker-compose-`uname -s`-`uname -m` > /opt/bin/docker-compose % Total % Received % Xferd Average Speed Time Time Time Current Dload Upload Total Spent Left Speed 100 403 0 403 0 0 1076 0 --:--:-- --:--:-- --:--:-- 1080 100 7990k 100 7990k 0 0 2137k 0 0:00:03 0:00:03 --:--:-- 3176k sd-xx~ # chmod +x /opt/bin/docker-compose sd-xx~ # docker-compose Define and run multi-container applications with Docker. Usage: docker-compose [options] [COMMAND] [ARGS...] docker-compose -h|--help Options: -f, --file FILE Specify an alternate compose file (default: docker-compose.yml) -p, --project-name NAME Specify an alternate project name (default: directory name) --verbose Show more output -v, --version Print version and exit Commands: build Build or rebuild services help Get help on a command kill Kill containers logs View output from containers port Print the public port for a port binding ps List containers pull Pulls service images restart Restart services rm Remove stopped containers run Run a one-off command scale Set number of containers for a service start Start services stop Stop services up Create and start containers migrate-to-labels Recreate containers to add labels