Where are Docker images stored on the host machine

+2 votes
I managed to find the containers under directory /var/lib/docker/containers, but I can't find the images.

What are the directories and files under /var/lib/docker and where can i find the images?
Jul 18, 2018 in Docker by Nilesh
• 7,060 points
12,323 views

5 answers to this question.

+3 votes
Best answer
The contents of the /var/lib/docker directory vary depending on the driver Docker is using for storage.

By default this will be aufs but can fall back to overlay, overlay2, btrfs, devicemapper or zfs depending on your kernel support. In most places this will be aufs.

You can manually set the storage driver with the -s or --storage-driver= option to the Docker daemon.

·         /var/lib/docker/{driver-name} - will contain the driver specific storage for contents of the images.

·         /var/lib/docker/graph/<id> -now only contains metadata about the image, in the json and layersize files.

In the case of aufs:

·         /var/lib/docker/aufs/diff/<id>- has the file contents of the images.

·         /var/lib/docker/repositories-aufs -is a JSON file containing local image information. This can be viewed with the command docker images.

In the case of devicemapper:

·         /var/lib/docker/devicemapper/devicemapper/data stores the images

/var/lib/docker/devicemapper/devicemapper/metadata the metadata
answered Jul 18, 2018 by Kalgi
• 2,680 points

selected Apr 26, 2019 by Omkar
+1 vote

For Mac OS X

~/VirtualBox VMs/boot2docker-vm

Mac OS X using boot2docker 

/Users/rajesh.kumar/.docker/machine/machines/default

File Name – disk.vmdk

answered Apr 26, 2019 by Mannu
+1 vote

For most of the Linux versions:

/var/lib/docker/aufs/diff/<id> has the file contents of the images.

/var/lib/docker/repositories-aufs is a JSON file containing local image information. This can be viewed with the command docker images.

answered Apr 26, 2019 by Jobin
+1 vote

For device mapper (Redhat)

/var/lib/docker/devicemapper/devicemapper/data – stores the images

/var/lib/docker/devicemapper/devicemapper/metadata – the metadata

answered Apr 26, 2019 by Inayat
+1 vote

For Windows:

%USERPROFILE%/VirtualBoxVMs/boot2docker-vm

You can manually set the storage driver with the -s or –storage-driver= option to the Docker daemon.

/var/lib/docker/{driver-name} will contain the driver specific storage for contents of the images.

/var/lib/docker/graph/<id> now only contains metadata about the image, in the json and layersize files.

answered Apr 26, 2019 by Laksha

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