How to remove Docker Containers, Images, Volumes, and Networks

Hello friends!
How are you all doing? Hope you have spent a nice week. Here I come with another Docker article, which I need regularly to clean my hard disk. You can find my other docker article here.

Docker usually doesn’t remove unused objects such as containers, images, volumes, and networks unless you explicitly tell it to do so. After regularly work with Docker, it will accumulate a large number of unused objects that consume significant disk space. Also, it will clutter the output produced by the Docker commands.

This article helps me keep the 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

You’ll be prompted to continue as follows. But you can use “-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]

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

You can remove one or more Docker images with the “docker container rm” command followed using the ID of the containers.

You can get a list of all containers with the “-a” flag to the “docker container ls” command:

docker container ls -a

The output might look something like as follows,

CONTAINER ID        IMAGE                   COMMAND                  CREATED             STATUS                   PORTS                               NAMES
 d9212de8c12b        nginx:alpine            "nginx -g 'daemon of…"   18 hours ago        Up 18 minutes            0.0.0.0:80->80/tcp                  sp_webserver
 047f08efe812        phpmyadmin/phpmyadmin   "/docker-entrypoint.…"   18 hours ago        Exited (0) 8 hours ago                                       sp_phpmyadmin
 dbe7329d03e5        wordpress:fpm-alpine    "docker-entrypoint.s…"   18 hours ago        Up 18 minutes            9000/tcp                            sp_wordpress
 b8adab6441c9        mysql:latest            "docker-entrypoint.s…"   18 hours ago        Up 18 minutes            0.0.0.0:3306->3306/tcp, 33060/tcp   db

Pass the “CONTAINER ID” to the “docker container rm” command to remove the container. For example, to remove the first two containers listed in the output above run:

docker container rm d9212de8c12b 047f08efe812

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 d9212de8c12b42a8bd0029df061cb74dc12cb174530b2036987575b83442b47. Stop the container before attempting removal or force remove.
Remove all stopped containers

To remove all stopped containers use the “docker container prune” command as follows:

docker container prune

You’ll be prompted to continue as follows, but you can 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]

To 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 
Remove containers using filters

The “docker container prune” command allows you to remove containers based on condition using the filtering flag “–filter”.

Currently, docker support “until” and “label” filter. You can use more than one filter by using multiple “–filter” flags.

For example, to remove all images that are created more than 1 hours ago, run:

docker container prune --filter "until=1h"
Stop and remove all containers

You can get a list of all Docker containers ID 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 ID.

docker container stop $(docker container ls -aq)

Once all containers are stopped, you can remove them using the “docker container rm” command followed by a list of all containers ID.

docker container rm $(docker container ls -aq)

Removing Docker Images

Remove one or more images

You can remove Docker images using “docker image rm” command by passing the image’s ID. You can get the list of docker images using “docker images ls” command to find the ID of the images you want to remove.

docker image ls

The output might be look something like this:

REPOSITORY                  TAG                  IMAGE ID            CREATED             SIZE
 poserponlinexyz_webserver   latest               a8ec97d79f7f        43 hours ago        647MB
 mariadb                     10.3                 3a88f7086520        5 days ago          343MB
 poserponlinexyz_mysql       latest               3a88f7086520        5 days ago          343MB
 wordpress                   fpm-alpine           539515b2a025        5 days ago          196MB

Once you’ve got 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 a8ec97d79f7f 3a88f7086520

If you get any error similar to the one showing below, it means that an existing container uses the image. To remove the image, you need to remove the container first.

Error response from daemon: conflict: unable to delete a8ec97d79f7f (cannot be forced) - image is being used by running container 029319840d36
Remove dangling images

A dangling image is an image that is not tagged and is not used by any container. Docker provides a command “docker image prune” that can be used to remove dangled and unused images.

docker image prune

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]

When removing dangling images, if the images build by you are not tagged, they will be removed too.

Remove all unused images

To remove all images which are not referenced by any existing container, not just the dangling ones, use the “docker image prune” command with the “-a” flag:

docker image prune -a
WARNING! This will remove all images without at least one container associated to them.
Are you sure you want to continue? [y/N]
Remove images using filters

You can also remove docker images based on a certain condition using the filtering flag “–filter”.

Currently, supported filters are “until” and “label”. You can use more than one filter by using multiple “–filter” flags.

For example, to remove all images that are created more than 1 hours ago, you would run:

docker image prune -a --filter "until=1h"

Removing Docker Volumes

Remove one or more volumes

You can remove one or more Docker volumes by passing the volume name to “docker volume rm” command. To get the list of docker volume’s name use “docker volume ls” command.

docker volume ls

The output might look something like this:

DRIVER              VOLUME NAME
local               8eb93baf3a7d63dd5439117d5dc647a2489771fb81cb3f3a6704fcd43f11e360
local               9fb0b3051bb106d3522badf6afdda95a136b7afa879244d2b18850a411749af0
local               75acded3bb444d0b59a22dadd0a6c8709b3e54c892115e4cec08cea2f258fe68

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 8eb93baf3a7d63dd5439117d5dc647a2489771fb81cb3f3a6704fcd43f11e360

If you get an error similar to the one showing below, it means that an existing container uses the volume. To remove the volume, you need to remove the container first.

Error response from daemon: remove 8eb93baf3a7d63dd5439117d5dc647a2489771fb81cb3f3a6704fcd43f11e360: volume is in use - [232c6430d9551e4e2fc5c5112d20502b2be5261a2c3311baa70290d72a64feb7]
Remove all unused volumes

To remove all unused volumes use the “docker image prune” command:

docker volume prune

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]

Removing Docker Networks

Remove one or more networks

You can use “docker network rm” command to remove one or more Docker networks by passing the Network ID. You will get a list of Docker network using “docker network ls” command.

docker network ls

The output might look something like this:

NETWORK ID       NAME            DRIVER         SCOPE
a026f27f6f1c     bridge          bridge         local
f492b8befe67     host            host           local
9e289ef9d748     none            null           local
94687f754d53     pos_default     bridge         local

Once you’ve got 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 “pos_default” run:

docker network rm 94687f754d53

If you get an error similar to the one shown below, it means that an existing container uses the network. To remove the network you need to remove the container first.

Error response from daemon: error while removing network: network poserponlinexyz_default id 94687f754d533bddecf834a98849133ee8de628c4f2458b939983cf92f017e9c has active endpoints
Remove all unused network

Use the “docker network prune” command to remove all unused networks.

docker network prune

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]
Remove networks using filters

With the “docker network prune” command you can remove networks based on condition using the filtering flag “–filter”.

Currently, supported filters are “until” and “label”. You can use more than one filter by using multiple --filter flags.

For example, to remove all networks that are created more than 1 hours ago, run:

docker network prune -a --filter "until=1h"

Conclusion

In this article, I have referred some of the common commands for removing Docker containers, images, volumes, and networks. To know more, check out the official Docker documentation.

If you have any questions, please leave a comment below.
Thanks for your time. See you soon!

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