In this article we will discuss how remove all docker containers or only running or stopped containers.
Suppose we have 6 containers in our docker engine out of which 3 are running and 3 are stopped i.e.
PS C:\Windows\system32> docker ps -a
CONTAINER ID IMAGE COMMAND CREATED STATUS PORTS NAMES 4188498ee191 ubuntu "/bin/bash" 7 seconds ago Up 6 seconds confident_napier fe3499578648 centos "/bin/bash" 18 seconds ago Up 17 seconds condescending_vaughan 4622f48ceaed ubuntu "/bin/bash" 4 hours ago Exited (0) 4 hours ago hungry_hofstadter ecc42527bba4 ubuntu "/bin/bash" 4 hours ago Exited (0) 4 hours ago sharp_kapitsa 6f5190548f7a centos "/bin/bash" 4 hours ago Exited (0) 4 hours ago loving_cocks 6708084317a1 centos "/bin/bash" 4 hours ago Exited (0) 4 hours ago jovial_diffie af70224e7cc5 centos "/bin/bash" 4 hours ago Exited (0) 4 hours ago objective_haibt 121ba587209b centos "/bin/bash" 4 hours ago Exited (0) 4 hours ago flamboyant_nobel
Remove all Running Docker Containers
As we saw above that we have two running containers, now to delete all the running containers use following command,
docker rm -f $(docker ps -q)
It will forcefully delete all the running containers (no need to stop them first). but how did it worked ?
How did it worked ?
docker rm command needs IDs or names of the containers to be deleted. But if we want 100 containers to be deleted then it is really hard to type all the container IDs in a single command. Therefore, to make our life easy first we fetched the IDs of all running containers using following command,
Frequently Asked:
- How to get IP address of running docker container from host using inspect command ?
- Docker : How to Stop & Remove a running container by ID or Name ?
- How to create & run a Docker Container from an Image ?
- How to Stop & remove all or running or stopped docker containers ?
docker ps -q
It returned the Ids of all running containers i.e.
4188498ee191 fe3499578648
Then we passed these list of container IDs to docker rm command i.e.
docker rm -f $(docker ps -q)
This is how it removed all running containers. Also, as we are directly removing the containers without first stopping them. Therefore we used the -f option to forcefully remove the running containers.
How to Remove all stopped Docker Containers ?
Many times we have large number of stopped containers in our system and we want to delete all of the stopped containers. Let’s see how to do that
Suppose we have total 8 containers out of which 6 are stopped containers i.e. containers with state ‘Exited’ i.e.
PS C:\Windows\system32> docker ps -a
CONTAINER ID IMAGE COMMAND CREATED STATUS PORTS NAMES 4e88ee8e736e centos "/bin/bash" About a minute ago Up About a minute agitated_chaplygin 8b38ae16205a ubuntu "/bin/bash" About a minute ago Up About a minute silly_napier 4622f48ceaed ubuntu "/bin/bash" 5 hours ago Exited (0) 5 hours ago hungry_hofstadter ecc42527bba4 ubuntu "/bin/bash" 5 hours ago Exited (0) 5 hours ago sharp_kapitsa 6f5190548f7a centos "/bin/bash" 5 hours ago Exited (0) 5 hours ago loving_cocks 6708084317a1 centos "/bin/bash" 5 hours ago Exited (0) 5 hours ago jovial_diffie af70224e7cc5 centos "/bin/bash" 5 hours ago Exited (0) 5 hours ago objective_haibt 121ba587209b centos "/bin/bash" 5 hours ago Exited (0) 5 hours ago flamboyant_nobel
Now to delete all the stopped containers use following command,
docker rm $(docker ps --filter "status=exited" -q)
It will delete all the stopped containers .
But how did it worked ?
docker rm command needs IDs or names of the containers to be deleted. But if we want n number of stopped or exited containers to be deleted then it is difficult to pass all the container IDs in a single command. Therefore, to make our life easy first we fetched the IDs of all stopped containers using following command,
docker ps --filter "status=exited" -q
Here we filtered the containers whose status is exited and using -q option got their Ids only. So, it returned the Ids of all stopped containers i.e.
4622f48ceaed ecc42527bba4 6f5190548f7a 6708084317a1 af70224e7cc5 121ba587209b
Then we passed these list of exited / stopped container IDs to docker rm command i.e.
docker rm $(docker ps --filter "status=exited" -q)
This is how it removed all stopped containers.
Using the same logic of filtering we can delete the containers in other state too. A container can be in following states i.e. created , restarting , running , removing , paused, exited, dead.
To delete the containers in any specific state, pass that to filter as we did above.
How to Remove all Docker Containers ?
Well there might be situation when we want to delete all the containers i.e. either they are running or stopped or in any other state. For that we can use the following command,
docker rm $(docker ps -a -q)
It will basically delete all the containers (both running and stopped).
How to remove docker containers by Image Name
Suppose we have n number of docker containers (both running & stopped). Now we want to delete all the containers by image name.
For that we need to filter the containers by image name, then pass their IDs to docker rm command i.e.
docker rm -f $(docker ps -a --filter="ancestor=centos")
It will delete all the containers of image ‘centos’.
How did it worked ?
We filtered the containers using image name i.e.
docker ps -a --filter="ancestor=centos"
It returned a list of container IDs (both running and stopped) whose image was ‘centos’ i.e.
65a46390e2df a76e96d61e1f 0901ba9def92 66fab37f25f7 4e88ee8e736e
Now we passed this to docker rm command to delete this containers.
Remove containers using multiple filters
Suppose we want to delete all the containers which are stopped i.e. in exited state and were created using image ‘ubuntu’. Then we will use following command i.e.
docker rm $(docker ps -a --filter="ancestor=ubuntu" --filter "status=exited")
It will delete all the containers which are in exited state and were create from ubuntu image. Using this technique we can pass multiple filters while filtering containers for deletion.