Got the fundamentals? A structured Docker course is a fast way to level up.
Find Docker courses on UdemyAffiliate link. Costs you nothing extra.
- 01Getting Started
- 02What Is Docker?
- 03Checking the Version with docker --version
- 04Images vs. Containers
- 05Fetching an Image with docker pull
- 06Listing Images with docker images
- 07Starting a Container with docker run
- 08Running in the Background with docker run -d
- 09Listing Running Containers with docker ps
- 10Listing Every Container with docker ps -a
- 11Naming a Container with docker run --name
- 12Stopping a Container with docker stop
- 13Restarting a Stopped Container with docker start
- 14Restarting with docker restart
- 15Deleting a Container with docker rm
- 16Deleting an Image with docker rmi
- 17Publishing a Port with docker run -p
- 18Passing Environment Variables with docker run -e
- 19Mounting a Volume with docker run -v
- 20Running Commands Inside a Container with docker exec
- 21Reading Logs with docker logs
- 22Inspecting Details with docker inspect
- 23Viewing Processes with docker top
- 24Monitoring Resources with docker stats
- 25Copying Files with docker cp
- 26What Is a Dockerfile?
- 27Choosing a Base Image with FROM
- 28Setting the Working Directory with WORKDIR
- 29Adding Files with COPY
- 30Executing Commands with RUN
- 31Setting the Startup Command with CMD
- 32Declaring Ports with EXPOSE
- 33Building an Image with docker build
- 34Tagging an Image with docker tag
- 35Sharing an Image with docker push
- 36What Is .dockerignore?
- 37What Is a Multi-Stage Build?
- 38Creating a Volume with docker volume create
- 39Listing Volumes with docker volume ls
- 40Creating a Network with docker network create
- 41Listing Networks with docker network ls
- 42What Is Docker Compose?
- 43Starting Everything with docker compose up
- 44Stopping Everything with docker compose down
- 45Cleaning Up with docker system prune
Cleaning Up with docker system prune
When Docker has quietly eaten your disk, use docker system prune. It removes stopped containers, unused networks and dangling images in one go.
The syntax is docker system prune. It asks for confirmation; -f skips the prompt, and -a also removes images no container uses.
Running docker system prune -f deletes the accumulated stopped containers and unused networks, then reports how much space it reclaimed.
A common stumble is reaching for -a without thinking and deleting images you will immediately have to download again. Check what exists first.
In real work, it is regular maintenance on development machines and CI servers, where build artifacts pile up fast.
🧑💻 You can type this command into the Docker pseudo terminal to try it yourself (this page itself has no interactive terminal).