How To Clear Docker Cache (2024)

FAQs

How To Clear Docker Cache? ›

We can remove all unused artifacts Docker has produced by running docker system prune . This will remove all unused containers, images, networks, and build cache. By default, Docker prune will not remove volumes and only removes dangling Docker images. We can use the --volumes flag to remove volumes as well.

Docker prune command

Docker has a single command that cleans up all dangling resources, such as images, containers, volumes, and networks, not tagged or connected to a container. The Docker prune command automatically removes the resources not associated with a container.

1) Use the `docker rm` command to remove a container from your system. This can be done manually or automated using scripts. 2) Use the Docker command `docker container prune`. This command can be used to clean up stopped containers that are no longer in use.

To remove all containers from the docker machine, we need to get the ids of all the containers. We can simply get the ids of the containers with the command docker ps -aq , then by using the docker rm command, we can remove all the containers in the docker-machine.

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.

Where is Docker cache stored? ›

When you first build a Dockerfile, Docker caches the results so that subsequent builds become fast. When a RUN, ADD, COPY or a similar instruction is encountered, a new layer is created over the base image. The file structure formed is stored by default at /var/lib/docker in a Linux based host system.

Docker's build cache is a great way to speed up builds by reusing layers from previous builds. To build a Docker image without using the cache, you can use the '--no-cache' flag with the 'docker build' command. This flag tells Docker to ignore any cached layers during the build process.

Removing build cache

To remove the Docker build cache, we can run the docker buildx prune command to clear the build cache of the default builder. If we want to remove the build cache for a specific builder, we can use the --builder flag to specify the builder name.

When you first build a Dockerfile, Docker caches the results so that subsequent builds become fast. When a RUN, ADD, COPY or a similar instruction is encountered, a new layer is created over the base image. The file structure formed is stored by default at /var/lib/docker in a Linux based host system.

In docker desktop, click the bug icon in the top right and purge all your data. You should see as AppData\Local\Docker\wsl\data drops from 20+GB to just a couple MB. Open powershell and enter in wsl --shutdown to reclaim about 10GB of space (Windows). Go to AppData\Local\Temp and delete everything.