Stop and delete Docker container if it's running

I have a similar problem, but didn't like the accepted answer as it suppresses all errors from the commands, rather than just the "not found" error.

However, docker ps -q --filter "name=rabbitmq" only produces output if a container of that name actually exists, so inspired by Test if a command outputs an empty string I came up with:

docker ps -q --filter "name=rabbitmq" | grep -q . && docker stop rabbitmq && docker rm -fv rabbitmq 

The following command is also useful for testing filter definitions:

docker ps -q --filter "name=rabbitmq" | grep -q . && echo Found || echo Not Found 

My actual use case was in defining a pair of Ansible tasks that deleted all currently existing containers (whether running or not) from a list of names generated in an earlier task:

- name: Check for containers that actually exist shell: 'docker ps -aq --filter "name={{ item }}"' with_items: - '{{ previous_command.stdout_lines }}' register: found_containers - name: Remove the containers found by the above command shell: 'docker stop {{ item.item }} && docker rm -fv {{ item.item }}' with_items: '{{ found_containers.results }}' when: item.stdout 

This is my preferred way to stop and remove a docker container. The piping of true is there to ensure that it always outputs a success. Without it, any bash scripts would exit and error if the container name did not exist.

docker rm -f container_name || true 

A variant of @ncoghlan's answer:

# stop runnin container(s) docker ps -q --filter "name=$name" | xargs -r docker stop # remove existing container(s) docker ps -aq --filter "name=$name" | xargs -r docker rm 

• pipe into xargs is an idiomatic way to use output to construct commands
• xargs -r avoids running docker commands when no matching container exists
• first docker ps finds all matching running containers
• second docker ps finds all matching containers, even not running
• separate commands make sure the container is removed even if it isn't running

You can use:

app="rabbitmq" if docker ps | awk -v app="$app" 'NR > 1 && $NF == app{ret=1; exit} END{exit !ret}'; then docker stop "$app" && docker rm -f "$app" fi 

• awk command gets a command line var app from BASH's variable $app
• NR>1 skips first header row from docker ps command.
• $(NF) == app Compare last column NAMES is equal to app variable or not

# Stop and remove containers with names like "rabbitmq" and "rabbitmq123" if they exist CONTAINER_NAME="rabbitmq" OLD="$(docker ps --all --quiet --filter=name="$CONTAINER_NAME")" if [ -n "$OLD" ]; then docker stop $OLD && docker rm $OLD fi 

I suggest this incantation in bash:

( docker stop $CONTAINER > /dev/null && echo Stopped container $CONTAINER && \ docker rm $CONTAINER ) 2>/dev/null || true 

It always exits with 0, doesn't complain if the container is not running, and prints Stopped container $CONTAINER if it actually got stopped.

A general form based on some answers here:

docker rm -f container_name > /dev/null 2>&1 && echo 'removed container' || echo 'nothing to remove'

Copy this code in your script.sh if you want stop and remove all

#!/bin/sh ids=$(docker ps -a -q) for id in $ids do echo "$id" docker stop $id && docker rm $id done 

Try below function. Adapted from https://stackoverflow.com/a/60579344/1554778

 function remove_previous_instance(){ echo "Container name: $1" CNAME=$1 if [ "$(docker ps -qa -f name=$CNAME)" ]; then echo ":: Found container - $CNAME" if [ "$(docker ps -q -f name=$CNAME)" ]; then echo ":: Stopping running container - $CNAME" docker stop $CNAME; fi echo ":: Removing stopped container - $CNAME" docker rm $CNAME; fi } 

Call it: remove_previous_instance "CNAME"

For stop for i in $(docker ps | awk '{print $1}) ; do docker stop "$i"; done

for killing for i in $(docker ps | awk '{print $1}) ; do docker rm "$i"; done

Easy way to do this issue

docker container ls -al | grep <name> && docker container rm -f <name> 

In the Below scenario:-

1. Docker on windows(wsl2)
2. Jenkins server on the same windows.
3. Using Jenkins pipeline to build and run containers.
4. Using bat script in the pipeline.

In this case, you can use the below command for preventing the build from failing.

'docker stop rabbitmq && docker rm rabbitmq || exit 0;' 

In a CI/CD pipeline or something that you don't need the output, the way I use is this:

docker rm -f rabbitmq &> /dev/null 

but as I undertand &> is not part of the official POSIX spec so we shoud use:

docker rm -f rabbitmq 1> /dev/null 2>&1 

-f (force) in docker rm -f:

Force the removal of a running container (uses SIGKILL)

instead of docker stop that sends:

.. SIGTERM, and after a grace period, SIGKILL

1> /dev/nul redirect the output 1 (stdout) to /dev/null and 2>&1 redirect the error 2 (stderr) to the same "file". & as the firs example redirect both 1 and 2.

To write a real file and append the content use docker rm -f rabbitmq 1>> docker_rabbitmq.txt 2>&1 or different files docker rm -f rabbitmq 1>> docker_rabbitmq_success.txt 2>> docker_rabbitmq_error.txt.

If you do not delete your stopped containers, another simple way to address this is to rely on docker ps -a, which will always return that container id. Then executing docker stop on that stopped container will idempotently simply do nothing:

docker stop $(docker ps -a --filter name= rabbitmq -q )