I’ve been working quite a bit lately on a secure deletion tool for Docker containers. Here are a few notes on basic delete methods, without security, which hints at the problem.

• List all current containers

$ docker ps -a

CONTAINER ID  IMAGE        COMMAND   CREATED             STATUS                        PORTS  NAMES
e72211164489  hello-world  "/hello"  About a minute ago  Exited (0) About a minute ago        ecstatic_goodall
927e4ab62b82  hello-world  "/hello"  About a minute ago  Exited (0) About a minute ago        naughty_pasteur       
d71ff26dbb90  hello-world  "/hello"  4 minutes ago       Exited (0) 4 minutes ago             hungry_wozniak        
840279db0bd7  hello-world  "/hello"  5 minutes ago       Exited (0) 5 minutes ago             lonely_pare           
49f6003093eb  hello-world  "/hello"  25 hours ago        Exited (0) 25 hours ago              suspicious_poincare   
6861afbbab6d  hello-world  "/hello"  27 hours ago        Exited (0) 26 hours ago              high_carson           
2b29b6d5a09c  hello-world  "/hello"  3 weeks ago         Exited (0) 3 weeks ago               serene_elion          

• List just containers weeks old

$ docker ps -a | grep “weeks”

CONTAINER ID  IMAGE        COMMAND   CREATED             STATUS                        PORTS  NAMES
2b29b6d5a09c  hello-world  "/hello"  3 weeks ago         Exited (0) 3 weeks ago               serene_elion          

• List all containers by ID

$ docker ps -a | grep ‘ago’ | awk ‘{print $1}’

e72211164489  
927e4ab62b82         
d71ff26dbb90          
840279db0bd7          
49f6003093eb    
6861afbbab6d         
2b29b6d5a09c          

• List all containers by ID, joined to one line

$ docker ps -a | grep ‘ago’ | awk ‘{print $1}’ | xargs

e72211164489 927e4ab62b82 d71ff26dbb90 840279db0bd7 49f6003093eb 6861afbbab6d 2b29b6d5a09c          

• List ‘hours’ old containers by ID, joined to one line, and if found prompt to delete them

$ docker ps -a | grep ‘hours’ | awk ‘{print $1}’ | xargs -r -p docker rm

docker rm 49f6003093eb 6861afbbab6d ?...

Press y to delete, n to cancel