diff --git a/cmd/podman/compose.go b/cmd/podman/compose.go
index d4df638993..3ff6865ece 100644
--- a/cmd/podman/compose.go
+++ b/cmd/podman/compose.go
@@ -26,7 +26,7 @@ var composeCommand = &cobra.Command{
 
 The default compose providers are docker-compose and podman-compose.  If installed, docker-compose takes precedence since it is the original implementation of the Compose specification and is widely used on the supported platforms (i.e., Linux, Mac OS, Windows).
 
-If you want to change the default behavior or have a custom installation path for your provider of choice, please change the compose_provider field in containers.conf(5).  You may also set PODMAN_COMPOSE_PROVIDER environment variable.`,
+If you want to change the default behavior or have a custom installation path for your provider of choice, please change the compose_providers field in containers.conf(5) to compose_providers = ["/path/to/provider"]. You may also set the PODMAN_COMPOSE_PROVIDER environment variable.`,
 	RunE:              composeMain,
 	ValidArgsFunction: composeCompletion,
 	Example: `podman compose -f nginx.yaml up --detach
diff --git a/docs/source/markdown/podman-compose.1.md.in b/docs/source/markdown/podman-compose.1.md.in
index 786128745f..815ac6bdd0 100644
--- a/docs/source/markdown/podman-compose.1.md.in
+++ b/docs/source/markdown/podman-compose.1.md.in
@@ -11,7 +11,7 @@ podman\-compose - Run Compose workloads via an external compose provider
 
 The default compose providers are `docker-compose` and `podman-compose`.  If installed, `docker-compose` takes precedence since it is the original implementation of the Compose specification and is widely used on the supported platforms (i.e., Linux, Mac OS, Windows).
 
-If you want to change the default behavior or have a custom installation path for your provider of choice, please change the `compose_provider` field in `containers.conf(5)`.  You may also set the `PODMAN_COMPOSE_PROVIDER` environment variable.
+If you want to change the default behavior or have a custom installation path for your provider of choice, please change the `compose_providers` field in `containers.conf(5)` to `compose_providers = ["/path/to/provider"]`. You may also set the `PODMAN_COMPOSE_PROVIDER` environment variable.
 
 By default, `podman compose` will emit a warning saying that it executes an external command. This warning can be disabled by setting `compose_warning_logs` to false in `containers.conf(5)` or setting the `PODMAN_COMPOSE_WARNING_LOGS` environment variable to false. See the man page for `containers.conf(5)` for more information.