Docker System Pruning and Cleaning Commands

• Docker System Pruning and Cleaning Commands
  • docker prune
  • docker rm vs prune

docker prune

Usage	Command	Description
Basic docker system prune	docker system prune	Removes all stopped containers, all dangling images, and all unused networks. You’ll be asked for a confirmation before it deletes these resources.
Prune without confirmation	docker system prune -f	Removes all the resources as above but without asking for confirmation.
Prune including unused volumes	docker system prune -a --volumes	In addition to the resources mentioned above, this also removes all unused images (not just dangling ones) and all unused volumes.

A few things to remember when using docker system prune:

• Be cautious with this command, especially with the -a and --volumes flags, as it can delete more than you might expect.
• “Dangling images” are untagged images, that are the leaves of the images tree (not intermediary layers).
• It won’t remove volumes created by a docker-compose.yml file by default.

docker rm vs prune

	docker rm	docker system prune
Purpose	Removes specific containers.	Removes unused data.
Target	Specific containers identified by their IDs or names.	All stopped containers, all networks not used by at least one container, all dangling images, and build cache.
Effect on running containers	Can forcefully remove if -f is used.	No effect on running containers.
Effect on stopped containers	Can remove if the container IDs are specified.	Removes all stopped containers.
Effect on images and networks	No effect.	Removes all dangling images and unused networks.
Effect on volumes	Can remove associated volumes if -v is used.	Removes all unused volumes if --volumes is used.

So, you can see that docker rm is more targeted – you specify exactly what you want to remove. On the other hand, docker system prune is more of a cleanup command – it gets rid of unused or dangling resources.