How To Remove Docker Containers, Images, Volumes, and Networks
Docker allows you to quickly build, test and deploy applications as portable, self-sufficient containers that can virtually run everywhere.
Docker doesn’t remove unused objects such as containers, images, volumes, and networks unless you explicitly tell it to do so. As you work with Docker, you can easily accumulate a large number of unused objects that consume significant disk space and clutter the output produced by the Docker commands.
This guide serves as a “cheat sheet” to help Docker users keep their system organized and to free disk space by removing unused Docker containers, images, volumes, and networks.
Removing All Unused Objects
The docker system prune command will remove all stopped containers, all dangling images, and all unused networks:
docker system prune
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You’ll be prompted to continue, use the -f or --force flag to bypass the prompt.
WARNING! This will remove:
- all stopped containers
- all networks not used by at least one container
- all dangling images
- all build cache
Are you sure you want to continue? [y/N]
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If you also want to remove all unused volumes, pass the --volumes flag:
docker system prune --volumes
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WARNING! This will remove:
- all stopped containers
- all networks not used by at least one container
- all volumes not used by at least one container
- all dangling images
- all build cache
Are you sure you want to continue? [y/N] y
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Removing Docker Containers
Docker containers are not automatically removed when you stop them unless you start the container using the --rm flag.
Remove one or more containers
To remove one or more Docker images use the docker container rm command followed by the ID of the containers you want to remove.
You can get a list of all active and inactive containers by passing the -a flag to the docker container ls command:
docker container ls -a
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The output should look something like this:
CONTAINER ID IMAGE COMMAND CREATED STATUS PORTS NAMES
cc3f2ff51cab centos "/bin/bash" 2 months ago Created competent_nightingale
cd20b396a061 solita/ubuntu-systemd "/bin/bash -c 'exec …" 2 months ago Exited (137) 2 months ago systemd
fb62432cf3c1 ubuntu "/bin/bash" 3 months ago Exited (130) 3 months ago jolly_mirzakhani
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Once you know the CONTAINER ID of the containers you want to delete, pass it to the docker container rm command. For example to remove the first two containers listed in the output above run:
docker container rm cc3f2ff51cab cd20b396a061
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If you get an error similar to the following, it means that the container is running. You’ll need to stop the container before removing it.
Error response from daemon: You cannot remove a running container fc983ebf4771d42a8bd0029df061cb74dc12cb174530b2036987575b83442b47. Stop the container before attempting removal or force remove.
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Remove all stopped containers
Before performing the removal command, you can get a list of all non-running (stopped) containers that will be removed using the following command:
docker container ls -a --filter status=exited --filter status=created
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To remove all stopped containers use the docker container prune command:
docker container prune
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You’ll be prompted to continue, use the -f or --force flag to bypass the prompt.
WARNING! This will remove all stopped containers.
Are you sure you want to continue? [y/N] y
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Remove containers using filters
The docker container prune command allows you to remove containers based on condition using the filtering flag --filter.
At the time of the writing of this article, the currently supported filters are until and label. You can use more than one filter by passing multiple --filter flags.
For example to remove all images that are created more than 12 hours ago, run:
docker container prune --filter "until=12h"
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Stop and remove all containers
You can get a list of all Docker containers on your system using the docker container ls -aq command.
To stop all running containers use the docker container stop command followed by a list of all containers IDs.
docker container stop $(docker container ls -aq)
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Once all containers are stopped you can remove them using the docker container stopcommand followed by the containers ID list.
docker container rm $(docker container ls -aq)
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Removing Docker Images
Remove one or more images
To remove one or more Docker images use the docker images ls command to find the ID of the images you want to remove.
docker image ls
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The output should look something like this:
REPOSITORY TAG IMAGE ID CREATED SIZE
centos latest 75835a67d134 7 days ago 200MB
ubuntu latest 2a4cca5ac898 2 months ago 111MB
linuxize/fedora latest a45d6dca3361 3 months ago 311MB
java 8-jre e44d62cf8862 3 months ago 311MB
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Once you’ve located the images you want to remove, pass their IMAGE ID to the docker image rm command. For example to remove the first two images listed in the output above run:
docker image rm 75835a67d134 2a4cca5ac898
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If you get an error similar to the following, it means that the image is used by an existing container. To remove the image you will have to remove the container first.
Error response from daemon: conflict: unable to remove repository reference "centos" (must force) - container cd20b396a061 is using its referenced image 75835a67d134
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Remove dangling and unused images
Docker provides a docker image prune command that can be used to remove dangled and unused images.
A dangling image is an image that is not tagged and is not used by any container. To remove dangling images type:
docker image prune
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You’ll be prompted to continue, use the -f or --force flag to bypass the prompt.
WARNING! This will remove all dangling images.
Are you sure you want to continue? [y/N] y
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When removing dangling images, if the images build by you are not tagged they will be removed too.
To remove all images which are not referenced by any existing container, not just dangling ones, use the -a flag:
docker image prune -a
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WARNING! This will remove all images without at least one container associated to them.
Are you sure you want to continue? [y/N] y
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Remove images using filters
With the docker image prune command, you can remove images based on condition using the filtering flag --filter.
At the time of the writing of this article, the currently supported filters are until and label. You can use more than one filter by passing multiple --filter flags.
For example to remove all images that are created more than 12 hours ago, run:
docker image prune -a --filter "until=12h"
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Removing Docker Volumes
Remove one or more volumes
To remove one or more Docker volumes use the docker volume ls command to find the ID of the volumes you want to remove.
docker volume ls
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The output should look something like this:
DRIVER VOLUME NAME
local 4e12af8913af888ba67243dec78419bf18adddc3c7a4b2345754b6db64293163
local terano
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Once you’ve found the VOLUME NAME of the volumes you want to remove, pass them to the docker volume rm command. For example to remove the first volume listed in the output above run:
docker volume rm 4e12af8913af888ba67243dec78419bf18adddc3c7a4b2345754b6db64293163
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If you get an error similar to the following, it means that the volume is used by an existing container. To remove the volume you will have to remove the container first.
Error response from daemon: remove 4e12af8913af888ba67243dec78419bf18adddc3c7a4b2345754b6db64293163: volume is in use - [c7188935a38a6c3f9f11297f8c98ce9996ef5ddad6e6187be62bad3001a66c8e]
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Remove unused volumes
To remove all unused volumes use the docker image prune command:
docker volume prune
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You’ll be prompted to continue, use the -f or --force flag to bypass the prompt.
WARNING! This will remove all local volumes not used by at least one container.
Are you sure you want to continue? [y/N]
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Removing Docker Networks
Remove one or more networks
To remove one or more Docker networks use the docker network ls command to find the ID of the networks you want to remove.
docker network ls
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The output should look something like this:
NETWORK ID NAME DRIVER SCOPE
107b8ac977e3 bridge bridge local
ab998267377d host host local
c520032c3d31 my-bridge-network bridge local
9bc81b63f740 none null local
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Once you’ve located the networks you want to remove, pass their NETWORK ID to the docker network rm command. For example to remove the network with the name my-bridge-network run:
docker network rm c520032c3d31
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If you get an error similar to the following, it means that the network is used by an existing container. To remove the network you will have to remove the container first.
Error response from daemon: network my-bridge-network id 6f5293268bb91ad2498b38b0bca970083af87237784017be24ea208d2233c5aa has active endpoints
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Remove unused network
Use the docker network prune command to remove all unused networks.
docker network prune
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You’ll be prompted to continue, use the -f or --force flag to bypass the prompt.
WARNING! This will remove all networks not used by at least one container.
Are you sure you want to continue? [y/N]
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Remove networks using filters
With the docker network prune command you can remove networks based on condition using the filtering flag --filter.
At the time of the writing of this article, the currently supported filters are until and label. You can use more than one filter by passing multiple --filter flags.
For example to remove all networks that are created more than 12 hours ago, run:
docker network prune -a --filter "until=12h"
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Conclusion
In this guide, we have shown you some of the common commands for removing Docker containers, images, volumes, and networks.
You should also check out the official Docker documentation.
If you have any question, please leave a comment below.