How do I delete all running Docker containers?

Question

I remember using

docker rm -f `docker ps -aq`

to chain the commands without an issue a few months ago, but now this isn't working, and I'm getting the following output:

unknown shorthand flag: 'a' in -aq`
See 'docker rm --help'.

What changed? How can I delete all Docker running containers in one line? In case it helps, I'm using Docker for Windows (native with Hyper-V, not with VirtualBox) on Windows 10, and the command I used has worked fine with my previous Windows 8 Docker toolbox installation.

That looks correct to me (I use the exact same command, albeit on OSX). Did you upgrade recently? (Could be a regression in Docker for Windows) — Oliver Charlesworth, Jun 26 '16 at 17:41
FWIW, have you tried `--all` instead of `-a`, just to see what happens? — Oliver Charlesworth, Jun 26 '16 at 17:42
`docker ps -aq` works perfectly fine and returns the IDs of all my containers. `docker rm -f ` also works perfectly fine and removes any docker container I want. It's chaining I have issues with — sgarcia.dev, Jun 26 '16 at 17:44
Possible duplicate of [How to remove old Docker containers](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/17236796/how-to-remove-old-docker-containers) — Ali Dehghani, Jun 26 '16 at 19:33
What OS and what shell? Are you sure you used backticks? Show the output of `docker ps -aq` without the `docker rm` command. — BMitch, Jun 26 '16 at 20:43

score 28 · Accepted Answer · edited Jul 23 '18 at 19:46

28

Till now (Docker version 1.12) we are using the following command to delete all the running containers (also, if we want to delete the volumes, we can do that manually using its respective tag -v in the following command),

Delete all Exited Containers

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

Delete all Stopped Containers

docker rm $(docker ps -a -q)

Delete All Running and Stopped Containers

docker stop $(docker ps -a -q)
docker rm $(docker ps -a -q)

Remove all containers, without any criteria

docker container rm $(docker container ps -aq)

But, in version 1.13 and above, for complete system and cleanup, we can directly user the following command,

docker system prune

All unused containers, images, networks and volumes will get deleted. Also, individually i.e. separately, we can do that using the following commands, that clean up the components,

docker container prune
docker image prune
docker network prune
docker volume prune

edited Jul 23 '18 at 19:46

Peter Mortensen

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answered Feb 25 '17 at 16:05

mohan08p

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this syntax appears to be for unix bash, not windows 10 command line. is that correct? – tatmanblue Aug 14 '17 at 16:01
@tatmanblue: these comamnds works fine on docker quickstart terminal of docker toolbox and powershell of docker for windows. – mohan08p Aug 14 '17 at 18:36
@tatmanblue On Windows try `-aq` instead of `-a -q` to specify the flags. – Manfred Aug 05 '18 at 22:17
I am getting this error in power shell. unknown shorthand flag: 'a' in -aq) See 'docker rm --help'. – Cpt Kitkat Jun 25 '19 at 09:21

score 8 · Answer 2 · answered Jan 14 '18 at 10:15

8

I had this issue when running in cmd. Switched to PowerShell and it worked!

answered Jan 14 '18 at 10:15

D-Go

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score 6 · Answer 3 · edited Jul 23 '18 at 19:46

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Use:

docker rm -f $(docker ps -aq)

edited Jul 23 '18 at 19:46

Peter Mortensen

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answered Mar 10 '18 at 18:10

fazni

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score 4 · Answer 4 · answered Jun 12 '18 at 13:36

If anybody needs the Windows Shell Command (stop and remove container), here it is:

for /F %c in ('docker ps -a -q') do (docker stop %c)
for /F %c in ('docker ps -a -q') do (docker rm %c)

If you put it in a batch file, just add % to %c:

for /F %%c in ('docker ps -a -q') do (docker stop %%c)

score 1 · Answer 5 · edited Jul 24 '18 at 07:54

1

I've had the same problem: I was on a Windows machine and used Docker within VirtualBox and the command docker rm -f ${docker ps -aq} worked well. Then I switched to Docker for Windows and the command didn't work on the Windows command line.

But using Cygwin or Git Bash solved the problem for me.

edited Jul 24 '18 at 07:54

Peter Mortensen

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answered Jul 28 '16 at 08:58

Munchkin

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score 1 · Answer 6 · edited Dec 05 '18 at 10:18

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Try using this command.

docker rm -f $(docker ps | grep -v CONTAINER | awk '{print $1}')

edited Dec 05 '18 at 10:18

Shahbaz A.

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answered Dec 05 '18 at 08:57

iamsj

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score 1 · Answer 7 · edited Aug 24 '22 at 10:56

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Run docker commands in Windows PowerShell will execute and run most of the commands

Hope you also remember to stop running containers first before running the delete command

docker stop $(docker ps -aq)

edited Aug 24 '22 at 10:56

Abhijeet Kasurde

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answered Apr 08 '20 at 07:07

Ndiklas

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score 1 · Answer 8 · answered May 07 '20 at 19:37

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

Tested on Docker version 19.03.5, build 633a0ea on Mac OS Mojave.

answered May 07 '20 at 19:37

user674669

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nPcomp · Answer 9 · 2018-07-23T22:14:16.630

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Use this:

docker rm -f $(docker ps | grep -v CONTAINER | awk '{print $1}')

If you want to include previously stopped containers:

docker rm -f $(docker ps -a | grep -v CONTAINER | awk '{print $1}')

edited Jul 23 '18 at 22:14

answered Jul 02 '16 at 07:40

nPcomp

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score 0 · Answer 10 · edited Aug 24 '22 at 10:57

0

If the container is running, you cannot delete the image. First stop all the containers using the following command.

docker stop $(docker ps -aq)

you are saying running stop against the output of docker ps -aq. 'a' - get me all the containers 'q' - return only the container id.

Then run the following command to remove all the containers.

docker rm $(docker ps -aq)

edited Aug 24 '22 at 10:57

Abhijeet Kasurde

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answered Jun 22 '18 at 06:23

Keerthikanth Chowdary

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score 0 · Answer 11 · edited Aug 24 '22 at 10:57

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Single command to delete all stop and running containers (first stop and then just prune/remove them. Works for me all the time.

docker stop $(docker ps -a -q) && docker container prune -a

edited Aug 24 '22 at 10:57

Abhijeet Kasurde

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answered Oct 14 '18 at 17:45

rebelution

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score 0 · Answer 12 · edited Aug 24 '22 at 10:57

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we can delete all running containers in docker ENV by the following the command -

docker container rm -f $(docker container ls -aq)

It should to the magic

if we have run our docker container using docker-compose.yaml then

docker-compose -f /path/to/compose/file down

should work

edited Aug 24 '22 at 10:57

Abhijeet Kasurde

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answered Feb 24 '22 at 06:02

Mukul Varshney

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How do I delete all running Docker containers?

12 Answers12