Cannot delete docker image

Question

While setting up a new build machine (CentOS 7, Docker CE 17.12.0-ce), I did a simple test:

docker run -it --rm ubuntu bash

Which worked fine, but now I can't remove the Ubuntu image.

[build ~]$ docker image rm ubuntu
Error: No such image: ubuntu
[build ~]$ docker image rm ubuntu:latest
Error: No such image: ubuntu:latest
[build ~]$ docker image ls
REPOSITORY          TAG                 IMAGE ID            CREATED             SIZE
ubuntu              latest              0458a4468cbc        24 hours ago        112MB
[build ~]$ docker rmi 0458a4468cbc
Error: No such image: 0458a4468cbc

It's not being used by any containers (not that that's the error anyway):

[build ~]$ docker ps -a
CONTAINER ID        IMAGE               COMMAND             CREATED             STATUS              PORTS               NAMES
[build ~]$

I even tried the nuke-from-orbit approach:

[build ~]$ docker rmi $(docker images -q)
Error: No such image: 0458a4468cbc

And restarting the docker daemon:

[build ~]$ sudo systemctl restart docker
[build ~]$ docker image ls
REPOSITORY          TAG                 IMAGE ID            CREATED             SIZE
ubuntu              latest              0458a4468cbc        24 hours ago        112MB
[build ~]$ docker rmi 0458a4468cbc
Error: No such image: 0458a4468cbc

What gives? Not that it really matters that the ubuntu image is there, I just don't understand why I can't clean it up.

Update

I tried pulling the image again, and, well:

docker pull ubuntu
Using default tag: latest
latest: Pulling from library/ubuntu
Digest: sha256:e27e9d7f7f28d67aa9e2d7540bdc2b33254b452ee8e60f388875e5b7d9b2b696
Status: Downloaded newer image for ubuntu:latest
[build ~]$ docker image ls
REPOSITORY          TAG                 IMAGE ID            CREATED             SIZE
ubuntu              latest              0458a4468cbc        25 hours ago        112MB
ubuntu              latest              0458a4468cbc        25 hours ago        112MB
[build ~]$ docker image rm ubuntu
Untagged: ubuntu:latest
[build ~]$ docker image ls
REPOSITORY          TAG                 IMAGE ID            CREATED             SIZE
ubuntu              latest              0458a4468cbc        25 hours ago        112MB
[build ~]$

Update 2

Tried the same basic steps with a brand new CentOS 7 1708 install and had no problems at all, so safe to say this is just a weird one-off corruption of something on this machine.

Question still is, how do I clean it up? Is there something on the filesystem I can just rm -rf and let docker start fresh?

have you tried docker images instead of docker image ls, I don't think there would be a difference though. — fahadash
– fahadash, Commented Jan 26, 2018 at 18:36
This looks like one to report as an issue. What storage driver are you using? docker info -f '{{ .Driver }}' Have you tried pulling the ubuntu image again? — BMitch
– BMitch, Commented Jan 26, 2018 at 18:50
Driver is devicemapper. Running docker images shows the same as docker image ls. — superstator
– superstator, Commented Jan 26, 2018 at 19:06

superstator · Accepted Answer · 2018-01-28 17:49:57Z

12

While setting up this system I had originally installed an old version of docker available from the standard CentOS repositories (yum install centos) instead of adding the docker repositories and installing docker-ce. Even though I'm on the latest version now, the old one must have introduced some bad data in /var/lib/docker before I upgraded. In the end I just deleted all the local image and container data and started over:

sudo systemctl stop docker
sudo rm -rf /var/lib/docker
sudo systemctl start docker

Everything is working normally now.

answered Jan 28, 2018 at 17:49

superstator

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1 Comment

mogul Over a year ago

got exactly the same here, and your big gun approach fixed as well

Ömer Sezer · Accepted Answer · 2021-02-04 09:42:34Z

3

I encountered similar thing, when I used rm -f, it was not working (could not delete)

docker rm -f <ImageId>

I restarted Docker Engine and I used the following command, it works.

docker image prune -f -a

answered Feb 4, 2021 at 9:42

Ömer Sezer

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1 Comment

OrangeDog Over a year ago

This left a bunch of images listed that still report "No such image"

user07 · Accepted Answer · 2021-02-22 06:26:28Z

0

You can try selecting the version of the operating system you want to delete, example:

docker image rm -f ubuntu:18.04

answered Feb 22, 2021 at 6:26

user07

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Comments

Dagoberto Marroquin · Accepted Answer · 2021-05-07 20:00:57Z

-2

maybe you can use docker image rm -f <ID_IMAGE>

answered May 7, 2021 at 20:00

Dagoberto Marroquin

1

1 Comment

Anton Krug Over a year ago

What is new in this answer what the other answers didn't covered already?

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