How to remove old Docker containers

Question

This question is related to Should I be concerned about excess, non-running, Docker containers?.

I'm wondering how to remove old containers. The docker rm 3e552code34a lets you remove a single one, but I have lots already. docker rm --help doesn't give a selection option (like all, or by image name).

Maybe there is a directory in which these containers are stored where I can delete them easily manually?

Answer 1

The official way is:

docker rm `docker ps -aq`

The Docker maintainers have indicated there will be no command for this - and you compose the commands like that:

We have discussed this before and prefer users to use the above line without having to add additional code to Docker.

Answer 2

To remove ALL containers without crying:

sudo docker ps -a | grep -v CONTAINER | awk '{print $1}' | xargs --no-run-if-empty sudo docker rm -f

Answer 3

Removing all containers from Windows shell:

FOR /f "tokens=*" %i IN ('docker ps -a -q') DO docker rm %i

Answer 4

#!/bin/bash
# docker-gc --- Remove stopped docker containers

RUNNING=$(docker ps -q)
ALL=$(docker ps -a -q)

for container in $ALL ; do
    [[ "$RUNNING" =~ "$container" ]] && continue
    echo Removing container: $(docker rm $container)
done

Answer 5

You can remove only stopped containers. Stop all of them in the beginning

docker stop $(docker ps -a -q)

Then you can remove

docker rm $(docker ps -a -q)

Answer 6

New way: spotify/docker-gc play the trick.

 docker run --rm -v /var/run/docker.sock:/var/run/docker.sock -v /etc:/etc spotify/docker-gc

• Containers that exited more than an hour ago are removed.
• Images that don't belong to any remaining container after that are removed

It has supported environmental settings

Forcing deletion of images that have multiple tags

 FORCE_IMAGE_REMOVAL=1

Forcing deletion of containers

 FORCE_CONTAINER_REMOVAL=1 

Excluding Recently Exited Containers and Images From Garbage Collection

 GRACE_PERIOD_SECONDS=86400

This setting also prevents the removal of images that have been created less than GRACE_PERIOD_SECONDS seconds ago.

Dry run

 DRY_RUN=1

Cleaning up orphaned container volumes CLEAN_UP_VOLUMES=1

Reference: docker-gc

Old way to do:

delete old, non-running containers

 docker ps -a -q -f status=exited | xargs --no-run-if-empty docker rm
             OR 
 docker rm $(docker ps -a -q)

delete all images associated with non-running docker containers

 docker images -q | xargs --no-run-if-empty docker rmi

cleanup orphaned docker volumes for docker version 1.10.x and above

 docker volume ls -qf dangling=true | xargs -r docker volume rm

Based on time period

 docker ps -a | grep "weeks ago" | awk "{print $1}" | xargs --no-run-if-empty docker rm
 docker ps -a | grep "days ago" | awk "{print $1}" | xargs --no-run-if-empty docker rm
 docker ps -a | grep "hours ago" | awk "{print $1}" | xargs --no-run-if-empty docker rm