remove images from docker registry v2.4

docker-registry-delete-image.txt

How to delete an image tag/image from docker registry v2.4

1) Re/Start registry with delete option enabled

  Edit the config.yml

  storage:
      delete:
          enabled: true

  Or pass the following environment variable to `docker run`
  
  REGISTRY_STORAGE_DELETE_ENABLED=true

2) Get tags list for repo

  curl -s GET http://<registry_host:port>/v2/<repo_name>/tags/list

3) Get manifest for selected tag

  curl -sI GET http://<registry_host:port>/v2/<repo_name>/manifests/<tag_name>

4) Copy repo digest hash from response header

  Docker-Content-Digest: <digest_hash>

5) Delete manifest (soft delete). This request only marks image tag as deleted and doesn't delete files from file system. If you want to delete data from file system, run this step and go to the next step

  curl -svIX DELETE http://<registry_host:port>/v2/<repo_name>/manifests/<digest_hash>

  Note! You must set headers for request - Accept: application/vnd.docker.distribution.manifest.v2+json

6) Delete image data from file system

  Run command from the registry host machine:

  docker exec -it <registry_container_id or name> bin/registry garbage-collect <path/to/registry/config.yml>

  Note! Usually, <path_to_registry_config>=/etc/docker/registry/config.yml