Steps

Cleanup phase

This phase’s goal is to removes existing containers, volumes, networks and images

Stop and remove volumes

docker compose down --volumes --remove-orphans

The previous command stops and removes containers, networks, and default volumes created by docker compose up.

• --volumes: also deletes named and anonymous volumes attached to the containers.

• --remove-orphans: removes any containers from earlier Compose runs that are not in the current docker-compose.yml.

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Remove any stopped containers

docker compose rm -fsv

The previous command explicitly removes any stopped containers from this project. This ensures no containers are left behind

• -f: force removal (no confirmation prompt).

• -s: stop the container if it’s running.

• -v: remove any anonymous volumes attached to these containers.

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Delete unused volumes

The following command deletes all unused volumes across the whole Docker host (not just our project), so, use it cautiously.

docker volume prune -f

-f: skips the confirmation prompt.

Remember. Be careful: this can delete volumes from other projects if they’re not in use.

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Delete unused networks

The following command delete all unused networks across the Docker host.

docker network prune -f

-f: skips confirmation.

Again, safe unless you have manually created custom networks you still need.

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Delete dangling images

The following command deletes dangling images, which are images without a tag or not referenced by any container).

docker image prune -f

-f: skips confirmation.

Only cleans dangling images, not all unused images. For a deeper clean, you’d need docker image prune -af.

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Rebuild phase

This phase forces a clean rebuild and restart.

Rebuild images

The following command rebuilds all images defined in your Compose file.

 docker compose build --no-cache

• --no-cache: ignores Docker’s layer cache, forcing every instruction in the Dockerfile(s) to run again. It guarantees you’re building fresh images without reusing cached layers.

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Start the containers

The following command starts the containers in detached mode (-d = runs in the background). `-d` is optional.

docker compose up -d

Now, it’ll use the freshly rebuilt images. It’ll recreate networks and attaches containers as defined in the Compose file.

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Done

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