Removing and Pruning Containers

To remove one or more containers, you can use the docker rm command.

docker rm [OPTIONS] CONTAINER [CONTAINER...]

To see this in action, run and remove a container:

# Run a container in detached mode
docker run -d --name my_container nginx

# Get the container ID
container_id=$(docker ps -a --filter "name=my_container" --format "{{.ID}}")

# Stop the container first, then remove it
docker stop $container_id
docker rm $container_id
# or use the name
# docker stop my_container
# docker rm my_container

If the container is stopped, it will be removed. However, you cannot remove a running container. To force the removal of a running container, you should add the -f or --force option. Here are the commands to run if you want to test this:

# Run a container in detached mode
docker run -d --name my_container nginx

# Get the container ID
container_id=$(docker ps -a --filter "name=my_container" --format "{{.ID}}")

docker rm -f $container_id
# or docker rm -f my_container

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