Oracle Linux - Docker unable to delete image is referenced in one or more repositories

In our examples we are running a Docker engine on an Oracle Linux host which we use to explain how you can work with Docker and containers. In this example post we do have the need to remove a number of unused images however are confronted with a reference dependency preventing the deletion of the unused image. The reason why this issue ocurred in this case is that we have two images present who are acutally the same image however are tagged in a different manner.

The reason this happens is the way the Oracle Linux images are tagged when they have been created and placed on the docker hub. We have one image which is tagged a 6.9 (the explicit version number) and one tagged as 6 which is a general reference to the highest version in 6 (which is 6.9). In effect the images 6.9 and 6 are exactly the same and are treated in the same manner.

Handling the version numbers as 6 and 6.9 is a convenient thing, especially in cases where a 6.10 version could be created (which is not the case for Oracle Linux 6). people would know that if they pulled 6 they would always have the latest version and if they wanted a specific version they could call 6.x (in our case 6.9)

Now, we have pulled 6.9 and 6 both to our Docker engine, during a cleanup we would like to remove both of them and we are faced with the below issue;

[root@localhost tmp]#
[root@localhost tmp]# docker images
REPOSITORY          TAG         IMAGE ID            CREATED             SIZE
oraclelinux         6           7a4a8c404142        3 weeks ago         170.9 MB
oraclelinux         6.9         7a4a8c404142        3 weeks ago         170.9 MB
[root@localhost tmp]#
[root@localhost tmp]#
[root@localhost tmp]# docker rmi 7a4a8c404142
Error response from daemon: conflict: unable to delete 7a4a8c404142 (must be forced) - image is referenced in one or more repositories
[root@localhost tmp]#
[root@localhost tmp]# 

As you can see the Docker Image ID's are the same, this is what is causing the issue as Docker references both images to each other. The way to resolve the issue is to force the remove image by using the -f flag in the command.

[root@localhost tmp]#
[root@localhost tmp]# docker rmi -f 7a4a8c404142
Untagged: oraclelinux:6
Untagged: oraclelinux:6.9
Untagged: oraclelinux@sha256:3501cce71958dab7f0486cd42753780cc2ff987e3f92bd084c95a53d52f4f1dc
Deleted: sha256:7a4a8c40414201cb671618dd99e8d327d4da4eba9d7991a86b191f4823925969
Deleted: sha256:d14f39f83be01eacab2aea7400a816a42ef7b8cdaa01beb8ff7102850248956d
[root@localhost tmp]#
[root@localhost tmp]# 

If you would now check the list of available images you will notice that 7a4a8c404142 has been gone, in fact, both 6 and 6.9 tags are gone who reference both to 7a4a8c404142.