container_rm.md

rm

Remove one or more containers

Aliases

docker container rm, docker container remove, docker rm

Options

Name	Type	Default	Description
-f, --force	bool		Force the removal of a running container (uses SIGKILL)
-l, --link	bool		Remove the specified link
-v, --volumes	bool		Remove anonymous volumes associated with the container

Examples

Remove a container

This removes the container referenced under the link /redis.

$ docker rm /redis

/redis

Remove a link specified with --link on the default bridge network (--link)

This removes the underlying link between /webapp and the /redis containers on the default bridge network, removing all network communication between the two containers. This does not apply when --link is used with user-specified networks.

$ docker rm --link /webapp/redis

/webapp/redis

Force-remove a running container (--force)

This command force-removes a running container.

$ docker rm --force redis

redis

The main process inside the container referenced under the link redis will receive SIGKILL, then the container will be removed.

Remove all stopped containers

Use the docker container prune command to remove all stopped containers, or refer to the docker system prune command to remove unused containers in addition to other Docker resources, such as (unused) images and networks.

Alternatively, you can use the docker ps with the -q / --quiet option to generate a list of container IDs to remove, and use that list as argument for the docker rm command.

Combining commands can be more flexible, but is less portable as it depends on features provided by the shell, and the exact syntax may differ depending on what shell is used. To use this approach on Windows, consider using PowerShell or Bash.

The example below uses docker ps -q to print the IDs of all containers that have exited (--filter status=exited), and removes those containers with the docker rm command:

$ docker rm $(docker ps --filter status=exited -q)

Or, using the xargs Linux utility:

$ docker ps --filter status=exited -q | xargs docker rm

Remove a container and its volumes (-v, --volumes)

$ docker rm --volumes redis
redis

This command removes the container and any volumes associated with it. Note that if a volume was specified with a name, it will not be removed.

Remove a container and selectively remove volumes

$ docker create -v awesome:/foo -v /bar --name hello redis
hello

$ docker rm -v hello

In this example, the volume for /foo remains intact, but the volume for /bar is removed. The same behavior holds for volumes inherited with --volumes-from.