docker rmi

Usage:  docker rmi [OPTIONS] IMAGE [IMAGE...]

Remove one or more images

Options:
  -f, --force      Force removal of the image
      --help       Print usage
      --no-prune   Do not delete untagged parents

You can remove an image using its short or long ID, its tag, or its digest. If an image has one or more tag referencing it, you must remove all of them before the image is removed. Digest references are removed automatically when an image is removed by tag.

$ docker images
REPOSITORY                TAG                 IMAGE ID            CREATED             SIZE
test1                     latest              fd484f19954f        23 seconds ago      7 B (virtual 4.964 MB)
test                      latest              fd484f19954f        23 seconds ago      7 B (virtual 4.964 MB)
test2                     latest              fd484f19954f        23 seconds ago      7 B (virtual 4.964 MB)

$ docker rmi fd484f19954f
Error: Conflict, cannot delete image fd484f19954f because it is tagged in multiple repositories, use -f to force
2013/12/11 05:47:16 Error: failed to remove one or more images

$ docker rmi test1
Untagged: test1:latest
$ docker rmi test2
Untagged: test2:latest

$ docker images
REPOSITORY                TAG                 IMAGE ID            CREATED             SIZE
test                      latest              fd484f19954f        23 seconds ago      7 B (virtual 4.964 MB)
$ docker rmi test
Untagged: test:latest
Deleted: fd484f19954f4920da7ff372b5067f5b7ddb2fd3830cecd17b96ea9e286ba5b8

If you use the -f flag and specify the image’s short or long ID, then this command untags and removes all images that match the specified ID.

$ docker images
REPOSITORY                TAG                 IMAGE ID            CREATED             SIZE
test1                     latest              fd484f19954f        23 seconds ago      7 B (virtual 4.964 MB)
test                      latest              fd484f19954f        23 seconds ago      7 B (virtual 4.964 MB)
test2                     latest              fd484f19954f        23 seconds ago      7 B (virtual 4.964 MB)

$ docker rmi -f fd484f19954f
Untagged: test1:latest
Untagged: test:latest
Untagged: test2:latest
Deleted: fd484f19954f4920da7ff372b5067f5b7ddb2fd3830cecd17b96ea9e286ba5b8

An image pulled by digest has no tag associated with it:

$ docker images --digests
REPOSITORY                     TAG       DIGEST                                                                    IMAGE ID        CREATED         SIZE
localhost:5000/test/busybox    <none>    sha256:cbbf2f9a99b47fc460d422812b6a5adff7dfee951d8fa2e4a98caa0382cfbdbf   4986bf8c1536    9 weeks ago     2.43 MB

To remove an image using its digest:

$ docker rmi localhost:5000/test/busybox@sha256:cbbf2f9a99b47fc460d422812b6a5adff7dfee951d8fa2e4a98caa0382cfbdbf
Untagged: localhost:5000/test/busybox@sha256:cbbf2f9a99b47fc460d422812b6a5adff7dfee951d8fa2e4a98caa0382cfbdbf
Deleted: 4986bf8c15363d1c5d15512d5266f8777bfba4974ac56e3270e7760f6f0a8125
Deleted: ea13149945cb6b1e746bf28032f02e9b5a793523481a0a18645fc77ad53c4ea2
Deleted: df7546f9f060a2268024c8a230d8639878585defcc1bc6f79d2728a13957871b