docker-images man page

docker images [--help] [-a|--all] [--digests] [-f|--filter[=[]]] [--format="TEMPLATE"] [--no-trunc] [-q|--quiet] [REPOSITORY[:TAG]]

This command lists the images stored in the local Docker repository.

By default, intermediate images, used during builds, are not listed. Some of the output, e.g., image ID, is truncated, for space reasons. However the truncated image ID, and often the first few characters, are enough to be used in other Docker commands that use the image ID. The output includes repository, tag, image ID, date created and the virtual size.

The title REPOSITORY for the first title may seem confusing. It is essentially the image name. However, because you can tag a specific image, and multiple tags (image instances) can be associated with a single name, the name is really a repository for all tagged images of the same name. For example consider an image called fedora. It may be tagged with 18, 19, or 20, etc. to manage different versions.

-a, --all=true|false

Show all images (by default filter out the intermediate image layers). The default is false.

--digests=true|false

Show image digests. The default is false.

-f, --filter=[]

  Filters the output based on these conditions:
  - dangling=(true|false) - find unused images
  - label=<key> or label=<key>=<value>
  - before=(<image-name>[:tag]|<image-id>| ⟨image@digest⟩)
  - since=(<image-name>[:tag]|<image-id>| ⟨image@digest⟩)

--format="TEMPLATE"

Pretty-print images using a Go template.
  Valid placeholders:
     .ID - Image ID
     .Repository - Image repository
     .Tag - Image tag
     .Digest - Image digest
     .CreatedSince - Elapsed time since the image was created
     .CreatedAt - Time when the image was created
     .Size - Image disk size

--help

Print usage statement

--no-trunc=true|false

Don't truncate output. The default is false.

-q, --quiet=true|false

Only show numeric IDs. The default is false.

To list the images in a local repository (not the registry) run:

docker images

The list will contain the image repository name, a tag for the image, and an image ID, when it was created and its virtual size. Columns: REPOSITORY, TAG, IMAGE ID, CREATED, and SIZE.

The docker images command takes an optional [REPOSITORY[:TAG]] argument that restricts the list to images that match the argument. If you specify REPOSITORYbut no TAG, the docker images command lists all images in the given repository.

docker images java

The [REPOSITORY[:TAG]] value must be an "exact match". This means that, for example, docker images jav does not match the image java.

If both REPOSITORY and TAG are provided, only images matching that repository and tag are listed.  To find all local images in the "java" repository with tag "8" you can use:

docker images java:8

To get a verbose list of images which contains all the intermediate images used in builds use -a:

docker images -a

Previously, the docker images command supported the --tree and --dot arguments, which displayed different visualizations of the image data. Docker core removed this functionality in the 1.7 version. If you liked this functionality, you can still find it in the third-party dockviz tool:  ⟨https://github.com/justone/dockviz⟩.

When using the --format option, the image command will either output the data exactly as the template declares or, when using the table directive, will include column headers as well. You can use special characters like \t for inserting tab spacing between columns.

The following example uses a template without headers and outputs the ID and Repository entries separated by a colon for all images:

docker images --format "{{.ID}}: {{.Repository}}"
77af4d6b9913: <none>
b6fa739cedf5: committ
78a85c484bad: ipbabble
30557a29d5ab: docker
5ed6274db6ce: <none>
746b819f315e: postgres
746b819f315e: postgres
746b819f315e: postgres
746b819f315e: postgres

To list all images with their repository and tag in a table format you can use:

docker images --format "table {{.ID}}\t{{.Repository}}\t{{.Tag}}"
IMAGE ID            REPOSITORY                TAG
77af4d6b9913        <none>                    <none>
b6fa739cedf5        committ                   latest
78a85c484bad        ipbabble                  <none>
30557a29d5ab        docker                    latest
5ed6274db6ce        <none>                    <none>
746b819f315e        postgres                  9
746b819f315e        postgres                  9.3
746b819f315e        postgres                  9.3.5
746b819f315e        postgres                  latest

Valid template placeholders are listed above.

Listing just the shortened image IDs. This can be useful for some automated tools.

docker images -q

April 2014, Originally compiled by William Henry (whenry at redhat dot com) based on docker.com source material and internal work. June 2014, updated by Sven Dowideit  ⟨SvenDowideit@home.org.au⟩

docker(1), docker-config-json(5), docker-pull(1).