Cleaning Resources
Explore practical techniques to clean up Docker resources like stopped containers, dangling images, unused volumes, and networks. Understand how to use commands and automate the cleanup process with CronJobs to prevent space issues and ensure smooth container operations.
Reasons for cleaning in Docker
One of the valuable and significant reasons we’ll enjoy Docker is when the environment we provisioned for it has lots of space. However, sometimes even with enough space made available, we still experience space issues. To curb this issue, we realize there’s a need to clean up our Docker environment often. Most times, what occupies the provisioned space isn’t our application running but other items not useful in the environment. Once the Docker environment gets filled up, applications won’t work any longer.
Resources that occupy space
Here are the items that might be occupying space in an environment:
Exited containers: These are containers no longer running or useful in our environment. They have exited while performing what they were provisioned for but are still lying fallow in the Docker environment.
Exited images: These are images that were in a container in the Docker environment but exited because the container wasn’t running anymore. These images are still found within the Docker environment, taking up space. Docker images that aren’t in running containers are called dangling images.
Unused volumes: Volumes that aren’t in use by any container but are still in the Docker environment. ...