How to Remove Docker Images, Volumes and Containers

Prepare some test items

Run a test container and create an image and a volume:

sudo docker run hello-world

sudo docker pull ubuntu:latest

sudo docker volume create my-volume
sudo docker run -v my-volume:/app/data ubuntu:latest

sudo docker run -it ubuntu:latest /bin/bash

Remove images

List the images:

sudo docker images

Remove an image by ID:

sudo docker rmi <image_id>

Example:

sudo docker rmi d2c94e258dcb

Remove an image by name:

sudo docker rmi ubuntu:latest

An image used by a container cannot be removed until you remove the container (or use -f to force it).

Remove all dangling (untagged, unused) images:

docker image prune

Remove all images that no container uses:

docker image prune -a

Remove volumes

List the volumes:

sudo docker volume ls

Remove one volume:

sudo docker volume rm my-volume

Remove all volumes that no container uses:

sudo docker volume prune

Remove containers

List the running containers and all containers:

sudo docker ps
sudo docker ps -a

Stop a running container:

sudo docker stop <container_id>

Remove it:

sudo docker rm <container_id>

Remove all stopped containers:

sudo docker container prune

Clean everything at once

sudo docker system prune

It removes stopped containers, unused networks and dangling images. Add -a to remove all unused images and --volumes to remove unused volumes too. Check the use of disk space first with:

sudo docker system df

Quick recap

• docker rmi, docker volume rm and docker rm remove single items.
• docker system prune cleans many at once. Use it carefully.