Fixing 'no space left on device' error while docker pull
No Space Left On device
I use docker compose a lot. We’re setting up development environments using docker compose files – this makes sharing work way easier.
Lastly, I got spurious errors while performing a docker pull like this:
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$ docker compose pull
...
write /var/lib/docker/tmp/GetImageBlob1094511197: no space left on device
As my system disk is always nearly full – I must admit that I’m a bit-hoarder – I started to remove some older files, some VMs etc. The error went away. I was happy.
Today, I got the same error again. I have cleaned out my disk – so what the hell?
The fix
Googling reveals a whole set of subcommands commands of docker which I up until now I did not know:
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$ docker system
Usage: docker system COMMAND
Manage Docker
Commands:
df Show docker disk usage
events Get real time events from the server
info Display system-wide information
prune Remove unused data
Run 'docker system COMMAND --help' for more information on a command.
Of course the docker system df is helpful:
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$ docker system df
TYPE TOTAL ACTIVE SIZE RECLAIMABLE
Images 117 2 47.15GB 46.77GB (99%)
Containers 4 0 3.241MB 3.241MB (100%)
Local Volumes 16 0 1.363GB 1.363GB (100%)
Build Cache 61 0 6.875GB 6.875GB
Woot! Docker uses 46GB for images on my system! It even tells me that almost all of it is “reclaimable”. Let’s prune them:
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$ docker image prune -a
WARNING! This will remove all images without at least one container associated to them.
Are you sure you want to continue? [y/N] y
Deleted Images:
untagged: ghcr.io/windmill-labs/windmill:main
untagged: ghcr.io/windmill-labs/windmill@sha256:9669fae32f09cddcc9013ec01a89de8773ead19d45f8c3d82a6879a9822752eb
deleted: sha256:141e2d1453f496e2159bbf00946fba03a5bd36165e0c4225ee06ddb4e65db1d8
...
deleted: sha256:d11502b17102889fedd3a37847666b7db3a49ef3f66388d4741ae8f0dcde1637
deleted: sha256:4dc9f4d5bf891a07fdd4fe4e470b3f62408ab2f73196b1848b06be0d0ec47ce8
deleted: sha256:c8716a1abe24b946178fbf63c8c805816bf16283f4eb43677edb699cdd819a50
deleted: sha256:39a8ca38b9480bd5c653ae3fdc048df1907924cefcbadce26132b00e78580327
deleted: sha256:79adfbf18ada127431a5ba9edcee430148ff9741183bbc61c0589054f7ccfd7d
deleted: sha256:7cd52847ad775a5ddc4b58326cf884beee34544296402c6292ed76474c686d39
Total reclaimed space: 33.72GB
Aha!
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$ docker system df
TYPE TOTAL ACTIVE SIZE RECLAIMABLE
Images 0 0 0B 0B
Containers 0 0 0B 0B
Local Volumes 16 0 1.363GB 1.363GB (100%)
Build Cache 61 0 6.976GB 6.976GB
This – of course – is not magic. The docker image prune -a will remove all unused images. As I’ve no container running, this means all images. This in turn means, that a docker pull will need to pull all layers again.
The manual has some additional expanation and some tips on how to exactly know what a docker prune will be removing.
Conclusion
Know thy tools!
This is what I keep telling people. It seems I’d better follow my own tips and read up on docker a bit more …