1.3. Deleting containers

Deleting a container

There are two ways to stop a container, we start with the recommended way. You first have to stop the container. Some might still know the CONTAINER ID or the NAME of the container but for those who don’t:

docker ps

CONTAINER ID        IMAGE               COMMAND                  CREATED             STATUS              PORTS               NAMES
699e82ed8f1f        mariadb             "docker-entrypoint..."   3 minutes ago       Up 3 minutes        3306/tcp            jolly_bardeen
7cb31f821233        mariadb             "docker-entrypoint..."   32 minutes ago      Up 32 minutes       3306/tcp            upbeat_blackwell

To stop a container use the command:

docker stop <container>

After that, check the new state with

docker ps

This should show only one container running:

CONTAINER ID        IMAGE               COMMAND                  CREATED             STATUS              PORTS               NAMES
699e82ed8f1f        mariadb             "docker-entrypoint..."   9 minutes ago       Up 9 minutes        3306/tcp            jolly_bardeen

We just exited the container “gracefully”, but as an alternative you can also kill a container with the docker kill <container> command. This stops the container immediately by using the KILL signal.

You may recognize that the container upbeat_blackwell is not present in the container list anymore. That is because docker ps only shows running containers, but as always you have a parameter that helps:

docker ps --all

CONTAINER ID        IMAGE               COMMAND                  CREATED             STATUS                         PORTS               NAMES
699e82ed8f1f        mariadb             "docker-entrypoint..."   12 minutes ago      Up 12 minutes                  3306/tcp            jolly_bardeen
7cb31f821233        mariadb             "docker-entrypoint..."   41 minutes ago      Exited (0) 2 minutes ago                           upbeat_blackwell
67d79f95c712        hello-world         "/hello"                 About an hour ago   Exited (0) About an hour ago                       upbeat_boyd

Now that the upbeat_blackwell container is stopped delete it:

docker rm <container>

Now the container has disappeared from the list:

docker ps --all

CONTAINER ID        IMAGE               COMMAND                  CREATED             STATUS                         PORTS               NAMES
699e82ed8f1f        mariadb             "docker-entrypoint..."   13 minutes ago      Up 13 minutes                  3306/tcp            jolly_bardeen
67d79f95c712        hello-world         "/hello"                 About an hour ago   Exited (0) About an hour ago                       upbeat_boyd