docker-rmi

View documentation for the original command

$ tldr docker image rm

docker rmi [OPTIONS] IMAGE [IMAGE...]

--digest string
    Delete image by digest (e.g., sha256:abc123...)

-f, --force
    Force removal of image and dependent containers

--no-prune
    Do not delete untagged parent images

The docker rmi command removes one or more Docker images from the local repository. Images are identified by their repository name, tag, digest, or ID. This is useful for cleaning up unused images to free disk space and manage the image cache.

By default, docker rmi prevents removal if the image is referenced by a container (running or stopped). Use --force to override this, which stops and removes dependent containers first. The --no-prune option retains untagged parent images, while --digest allows precise removal by image digest.

It does not affect images on Docker Hub or remote registries; only local copies are deleted. After removal, dangling images (untagged and unreferenced) may remain unless pruned separately with docker image prune. Always verify images with docker images before deletion to avoid removing needed ones.

Cannot remove images used by non-removed containers without --force, which is risky as it deletes containers too. Fails if image ID is invalid or image does not exist locally.

docker rmi myimage:latest
docker rmi --force abc123def456
docker rmi image1 image2 image3

0: success
1: failure (e.g., image in use, invalid ID)

Introduced in Docker 1.0 (2013) as part of core CLI for image lifecycle management; evolved with options like --force in Docker 1.6 and digest support in later versions.

docker images(1), docker image prune(1), docker image inspect(1), docker rmi(1)