How to completely uninstall docker

Question

I followed the uninstall instructions here. Then I ran these commands:

sudo apt-get purge docker-engine
sudo apt-get autoremove --purge docker-engine
rm -rf /var/lib/docker

So after I did all this I ran this command to see if docker files are any where else:

sudo find / -name '*docker*'

I found several places where docker files still exists.

/etc
/sys
/lib
/usr
/usr
/run
/proc
/var

Docker exists in subfolders in the list above. I can post every path if you like. There is about 200 locations.

Is there a way to totally and completely remove docker everywhere?

score 481 · Accepted Answer · edited Mar 22 '24 at 06:46

481

To completely uninstall Docker:

Step 1

dpkg -l | grep -i docker

To identify what installed package you have:

Step 2

sudo apt-get purge -y docker-engine docker docker.io docker-ce docker-ce-cli docker-compose-plugin
sudo apt-get autoremove -y --purge docker-engine docker docker.io docker-ce docker-compose-plugin

The above commands will not remove images, containers, volumes, or user created configuration files on your host. If you wish to delete all images, containers, and volumes run the following commands:

sudo rm -rf /var/lib/docker /etc/docker
sudo rm /etc/apparmor.d/docker
sudo groupdel docker
sudo rm -rf /var/run/docker.sock
sudo rm -rf /var/lib/containerd

You have removed Docker from the system completely.

edited Mar 22 '24 at 06:46

mirekphd

133

answered Apr 03 '18 at 06:31

Mayur Bhandare

5,155

26

Additionally I had to delete /usr/local/bin/docker-compose. – Gaia Jul 09 '18 at 19:51
24

I also remembered to remove the /etc/docker directory and all contents – paulperry Nov 17 '18 at 21:48
29

I see Docker related entries when $ sudo iptables -L after this. – eugene Apr 09 '19 at 09:07
1

@eugene I also able to see Docker related entries, Any suggestion what i need to do now. – Devansh Apr 09 '19 at 12:46
2

@Devansh I ran https://serverfault.com/a/200658/184963 but it clears everything.. so be warned.. I didn't have any rules setup except what docker added. – eugene Apr 09 '19 at 13:17
17

In my case, I had to use sudo apt-get purge docker-ce-cli as well. – irene Apr 23 '19 at 04:36
22

i also had to remove ~/.docker directory – SBH May 14 '19 at 07:30
1

If all this fails then you may have installed it with snap. lol. – mango Dec 15 '19 at 06:31
6

There is probably another way that doesn't involve rebooting, but rebooting will remove the left-over entries from sudo iptables -L. – We Are All Monica Jan 10 '20 at 23:45
Don't work for me with docker 19.03 – Mcsky Apr 02 '20 at 11:48
@WeAreAllMonica , I tried to delete all docker rules one by one and then I removed the chains as well. – Zeinab Abbasimazar Jan 19 '21 at 17:42
1

I removed chains and rules with iptables-save | grep -v -i docker | iptables-restore, with a backup first: iptables-save > $(date -I)-iptables.save – Pablo Bianchi Feb 15 '21 at 05:38
Also sudo rm /usr/share/keyrings/docker-archive-keyring.gpg – tomsihap Jan 26 '22 at 09:31
3

it makes sens to remove all data (images, volumes, network..) by docker first by using the command "docker system prune -a", and then remove docker package itself – Hamza AZIZ Jan 27 '22 at 15:16
4

I also had to include containerd.io in the commands – Omar Omeiri Oct 27 '22 at 12:33
1

Also run ip link delete docker0 to get rid of annoying message IPv4 address for docker0: 172.17.0.1 when you login. – Mikhail Kashkin Nov 06 '22 at 23:49
In my system the package was named containerd.io too – shitpoet Jan 10 '23 at 10:06
The incantation that worked for me on Ubuntu 20.04 was sudo apt-get remove docker docker.io containerd runc. – Saïd Mar 09 '23 at 14:44
1

I still see docker-buildx-plugin after running all those commands and then again dpkg -l | grep -i docker . Revoved it by running sudo apt-get purge docker-ce docker-ce-cli containerd.io docker-buildx-plugin docker-compose-plugin docker-ce-rootless-extras
So I think first thing to run is the things from docs.
– Darius.V Nov 23 '23 at 07:03

Vasiliki · Answer 2 · 2022-03-09T13:19:21.650

47

If you are on Ubuntu, I find it much easier to uninstall docker if it is installed with snap. You simply do:

sudo snap remove docker

or, to avoid it creating back-up data for a snap you no longer require:

sudo snap remove --purge docker

To find any potentially remaining files, you can run

sudo find / -name "*docker*"

If you want to delete everything listed (be careful because this is typically not what you actually want), you can run,

sudo find / -name "*docker*" -exec `rm -rf` {} +

IMPORTANT UPDATES

As mentioned in the comments,

The second part is not needed and just dangerous, at least run it without -exec `rm -rf` {} + first

and

The second part could delete files that belong to different packages, e.g. /usr/share/vim/vim80/syntax/dockerfile.vim

So better to see what is going to be deleted first.

edited Mar 09 '22 at 13:19

answered Jul 04 '19 at 15:50

Vasiliki

611

26

the snap command is well enough but take care before you delete everything on your system with docker in the name! – davidbak Jul 29 '19 at 19:52
1

You saved my MAAS box :) – David West Sep 06 '19 at 21:20
sudo find / -name "docker" -exec rm -rf {} + 2>/dev/null is what works for me – HashTables Mar 04 '20 at 14:02
9

The second part is not needed and just dangerous, at least run it without -exec \rm -rf` {} +` first. – Cwista May 11 '20 at 20:35
2

The second part could delete files that belong to different packages, e.g. /usr/share/vim/vim80/syntax/dockerfile.vim – orestisf Jul 08 '20 at 09:25
2

That last find command has the potential to do more harm than good. – Dan Jul 08 '20 at 10:54

score 31 · Answer 3 · edited May 14 '20 at 20:33

Collaborated list collected from above posts and comments fro removing docker and docker-compose:

sudo apt-get purge -y docker-engine docker docker.io docker-ce  
sudo apt-get autoremove -y --purge docker-engine docker docker.io docker-ce  
sudo umount /var/lib/docker/
sudo rm -rf /var/lib/docker /etc/docker
sudo rm /etc/apparmor.d/docker
sudo groupdel docker
sudo rm -rf /var/run/docker.sock
sudo rm -rf /usr/bin/docker-compose

score 15 · Answer 4 · edited Apr 02 '20 at 05:40

15

Add docker-ce-cli package also while doing purge of docker

sudo apt-get purge -y docker-engine docker docker.io docker-ce docker-ce-cli

edited Apr 02 '20 at 05:40

Thinh NV

135

answered Nov 05 '19 at 03:30

Kanhaiya P. Baranwal

161

score 8 · Answer 5 · answered Apr 22 '21 at 09:19

An update on uninstalling docker

Just an update on this, after I had to deal with the same issue.

Here is the official docker documentation on removing docker.

Remove the latest version:

Uninstall the Docker Engine, CLI, and Containerd packages:

sudo apt-get purge docker-ce docker-ce-cli containerd.io

Delete all images, containers, and volumes:

sudo rm -rf /var/lib/docker
sudo rm -rf /var/lib/containerd

Remove previous versions:

sudo apt-get remove docker docker-engine docker.io containerd runc

score 7 · Answer 6 · answered Jul 05 '20 at 04:43

Steps performed in order to remove docker on Centos 7:

yum list installed|grep -i docker
yum remove containerd.io.x86_64 docker-ce.x86_64 docker-ce-cli.x86_64
groupdel docker
ls /var/lib/docker/
rm -rf  /var/lib/docker /etc/docker
rm -rf  /var/run/docker.sock 
rm -rf  /var/run/docker
find /var -iname "*docker*"

Hope this information could be helpful for someone.

Best regards,

score 3 · Answer 7 · answered Oct 06 '21 at 14:29

3

Remove docker completly

dpkg -l | grep -i docker
sudo apt remove --purge docker-ce docker-ce-cli containerd.io
sudo rm -rf /var/lib/docker
sudo rm -rf /var/lib/containerd
sudo apt autoremove -y
sudo apt autoclean

answered Oct 06 '21 at 14:29

MD SHAYON

385

crislar · Answer 8 · 2022-12-02T10:58:55.300

Refreshing installation of Docker desktop and docker-ce after testing installation of Docker Desktop

After uninstalling docker desktop from ubuntu 22.04 and docker-ce (removing everything)

Then reinstalling docker engine (ce) alone as I want to run docker instance on host and separately on qemu/virt and being able to run hello-world I was getting this error

$ docker ps Cannot connect to the Docker daemon at unix:///home/christian/.docker/desktop/docker.sock. Is the docker daemon running?

Despite the user having docker group membership and permissions.

What was happening that despite uninstalling docker-desktop completely and docker-ce and then reinstalling from scratch I kept getting this error. There was no .docker/desktop/ folder

I found a config.json file .docker/config.json

that had a line "credsStore": "desktop", "currentContext": "desktop-linux"

So I copied it to a .bak extension and from then docker commands work properly without sudo

So it looks like uninstalling Docker Desktop is leaving at least that leftover behind.

AL-IMRAN · Answer 9 · 2023-02-15T08:53:06.643

// check docker is installed or not
dpkg -l | grep -i docker

// remove volume , network , container and image files
sudo docker volume prune -f
sudo docker network prune -f
sudo docker container prune -f
sudo docker image prune -a

// remove docker
sudo apt purge docker
or
sudo apt remove docker

// remove dependency packages related to docker
sudo apt autoremove
sudo apt autoclean

for details : read

score 0 · Answer 10 · answered Oct 07 '17 at 15:40

You can identify the packages those files originated from with a command like dpkg-query -S $(sudo find / -name '*docker*' -print 2>/dev/null). Any such packages that you do not need, you can remove with sudo apt-get purge <package>. Please use care when you do so as some packages include some support for docker, but you might not want to remove, say, a text editor or a file manager for that reason.

If some files did not originate from packages (indicated by "dpkg-query: no path found matching pattern path"), you can remove them individually. Again, please use caution, as there may be files unrelated to the docker you want to remove, which simply have the string "docker" in their names.

The dpkg query gives thousands of dpkg-query: no path found matching pattern which is not very useful. — Andrew Savinykh, Nov 14 '22 at 19:38

How to completely uninstall docker

10 Answers10

IMPORTANT UPDATES

An update on uninstalling docker

Remove the latest version:

Remove previous versions:

Linked

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