podman-images(1)

📦

version 6.1.4 · 18 versions

💅 `podman-images(1)` 💅

okay so real talk, this is the General Commands Manual page for podman-images, and it is fully going to teach you how to peek at the images chilling in your local storage. no cap, it's a good one. sit down, hydrate, let's go 🫶

✨ NAME ✨

podman-images — List images in local storage

basically: what images do i even have on this machine. iconic question. slay. 🎀

🌸 SYNOPSIS 🌸

three whole ways to say the exact same thing, bestie — pick your fave:

podman images [options] [image]

podman image list [options] [image]

podman image ls [options] [image]

💜 DESCRIPTION 💜

it displays the images you've got stored locally, their names, and their IDs. literally that's it, that's the whole vibe check. locally stored images + names + IDs ✨

🔥 OPTIONS 🔥

💫 `--all`, `-a`

shows all the images. by default it filters out the intermediate image layers, which, rude but okay. the default is false. 🫠

🎀 `--digests`

shows image digests. yes queen, show the digests.

🦋 `--filter`, `-f=filter`

this is the big one, so pay attention bestie. it provides filter values.

if you've got more than one filter, you gotta pass the --filter option multiple times, like this:

--filter label=test --filter until=10m

supported filters, alphabet-ish order, no detail dropped:

id — filter by image ID
before — filter by images created before the given IMAGE (name or tag)
containers — filter by images with a running container
dangling — filter by dangling (unused) images
digest — filter by digest
intermediate — filter by images that are dangling and have no children
label — filter by images with (or without, in the case of label!=[...] is used) the specified labels
manifest — filter by images that are manifest lists
readonly — filter by read-only or read/write images
reference — filter by image name
after/since — filter by images created after the given IMAGE (name or tag)
until — filter by images created until the given duration or time

and now the full tea on each one, in the order the manpage spills it:

the id filter accepts the image ID string.
the before filter accepts formats: <image-name>[:<tag>], <image id> or <image@digest>.
the containers filter shows images that have a running container based on that image.
the dangling filter shows images that are taking up disk space and serve no purpose. dangling image is a file system layer that was used in a previous build of an image and is no longer referenced by any image. they are denoted with the <none> tag, consume disk space and serve no active purpose. 😭 (not them eating your disk for zero reason)
the digest filter accepts the image digest string.
the intermediate filter shows images that are dangling and have no children.
the label filter accepts two formats. one is the label=key or label=key=value, which shows images with the specified labels. the other format is the label!=key or label!=key=value, which shows images without the specified labels.
the readonly filter accepts true or false.
the reference filter accepts regex expressions like image:.*-alpine.
the after/since filter accepts formats: <image-name>[:<tag>], <image id> or <image@digest>.
the until filter shows images created before the given date/time. the <timestamp> can be Unix timestamps, date formatted timestamps (e.g. 2020-12-31, 2021-01-01T10:00:00), or Go duration strings (e.g. 10m, 1h30m).

and bc this manpage really said "again" 🫠 here's the second pass — same filters, a couple of extra deets, zero words dropped:

the label filter accepts two formats. one is the label=key or label=key=value, which shows images with the specified labels. the other format is the label!=key or label!=key=value, which shows images without the specified labels.
the manifest filter shows images that are manifest lists.
the readonly filter shows, as a default, both read-only and read/write images. read-only images can be configured by modifying the additionalimagestores in the /etc/containers/storage.conf file. 📁
the reference filter accepts the pattern of an image reference <image-name>[:<tag>].
the after or since filter accepts formats: <image-name>[:<tag>], <image id> or <image@digest>.
the until filter accepts formats: golang duration, RFC3339 time, or a Unix timestamp and shows all images that are created until that time.

okay so yes, some of these show up twice in the original page — i'm not deleting them, i'm not merging them, we keep the whole thing fr fr 🔥

⭐ `--format=format`

change the default output format. this can be of a supported type like 'json' or a Go template. valid placeholders for the Go template are listed below:

okay so the --format placeholder menu is basically the image gossip glossary, and every single one matters:

.Containers — number of containers using this image. periodt.
.Created — elapsed time since the image was created.
.CreatedAt — exact time the image was created, formatted as YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM:SS +nnnn.
.CreatedSince — same as .Created.
.CreatedTime — same as .CreatedAt.
.Dangling — same as .IsDangling.
.Digest — the image digest.
.History — history of the image layer.
.ID — image ID, but truncated.
.Id — image ID, full SHA.
.IsDangling — is the image dangling? (true/false).
.IsReadOnly — is unage read-only? (true/false) 🙈 yes, spelling and all, we don't make the rules.
.Labels ... — map[] of labels.
.Names — image FQIN.
.ParentId — full SHA of parent image ID, or null (string).
.ReadOnly — same as .IsReadOnly.
.RepoDigests — map[] of zero or more repo/name@sha256:SHA strings.
.Repository — image repository.
.RepoTags — map[] of zero or more FQIN strings for this image.
.SharedSize — always seems to be 0. iconic.
.Size — size of layer on disk (human-friendly string).
.Tag — image tag.
.VirtualSize — size of layer on disk (bytes).

--history — display the history of image names. if an image gets re-tagged or untagged, then the image name history gets prepended (latest image first). this is especially useful when undoing a tag operation or an image does not contain any name because it has been untagged. lowkey a lifesaver for tag chaos 🎀
--no-trunc — do not truncate the output (default false).
--noheading, -n — omit the table headings from the listing.
--quiet, -q — lists only the image IDs.
--sort=sort — sort by created, id, repository, size or tag (default: created). when sorting by repository it also sorts by the tag as second criteria to provide a stable output. stable output is the vibe fr fr ✨

🌈 EXAMPLES 🌈

Okay bestie, this is the fun part — real commands, real output, real main-character energy. Let’s go 💅

List all non-dangling images in local storage — the classic “what do I even have in here?” move:

$ podman images
REPOSITORY                         TAG         IMAGE ID      CREATED       SIZE
quay.io/podman/stable              latest      e0b7dabc3352  22 hours ago  331 MB
docker.io/library/alpine           latest      9c6f07244728  5 days ago    5.83 MB
registry.fedoraproject.org/fedora  latest      2ecb6df95994  3 weeks ago   169 MB
quay.io/libpod/testimage           20220615    f26aa69bb3f3  2 months ago  8.4 MB

List all images matching the specified name — filter by name, slay:

$ podman images stable
REPOSITORY             TAG         IMAGE ID      CREATED       SIZE
quay.io/podman/stable  latest      e0b7dabc3352  22 hours ago  331 MB

List image ids of all images in containers storage — just the IDs, no extra commentary:

# podman image ls --quiet
e3d42bcaf643
ebb91b73692b
4526339ae51c

List all images without showing the headers — headers? Don’t know her:

# podman images --noheading
docker.io/kubernetes/pause                   latest   e3d42bcaf643   3 years ago   251 kB
<none>                                       <none>   ebb91b73692b   4 weeks ago   27.2 MB
docker.io/library/ubuntu                     latest   4526339ae51c   6 weeks ago   126 MB

List all images without truncating output — full IDs, no shortening, no cap:

# podman image list --no-trunc
REPOSITORY                                   TAG      IMAGE ID                                                                  CREATED       SIZE
docker.io/kubernetes/pause                   latest   sha256:e3d42bcaf643097dd1bb0385658ae8cbe100a80f773555c44690d22c25d16b27   3 years ago   251 kB
<none>                                       <none>   sha256:ebb91b73692bd27890685846412ae338d13552165eacf7fcd5f139bfa9c2d6d9   4 weeks ago   27.2 MB
docker.io/library/ubuntu                     latest   sha256:4526339ae51c3cdc97956a7a961c193c39dfc6bd9733b0d762a36c6881b5583a   6 weeks ago   126 MB

List all image content with the formatted content — table format, but make it your own:

# podman images --format "table {{.ID}} {{.Repository}} {{.Tag}}"
IMAGE ID       REPOSITORY                                   TAG
e3d42bcaf643   docker.io/kubernetes/pause                   latest
ebb91b73692b   <none>                                       <none>
4526339ae51c   docker.io/library/ubuntu                     latest

List any image that is not tagged with a name (dangling) — dangling images get a spotlight too:

# podman images --filter dangling=true
REPOSITORY   TAG      IMAGE ID       CREATED       SIZE
<none>       <none>   ebb91b73692b   4 weeks ago   27.2 MB

List all images in JSON format — for when you want your image data looking like a whole API moment:

# podman images --format json
[
    {
     "id": "e3d42bcaf643097dd1bb0385658ae8cbe100a80f773555c44690d22c25d16b27",
     "names": [
         "docker.io/kubernetes/pause:latest"
     ],
     "digest": "sha256:0aecf73ff86844324847883f2e916d3f6984c5fae3c2f23e91d66f549fe7d423",
     "created": "2014-07-19T07:02:32.267701596Z",
     "size": 250665
    },
    {
     "id": "ebb91b73692bd27890685846412ae338d13552165eacf7fcd5f139bfa9c2d6d9",
     "names": [
         "\u003cnone\u003e"
     ],
     "digest": "sha256:ba7e4091d27e8114a205003ca6a768905c3395d961624a2c78873d9526461032",
     "created": "2017-10-26T03:07:22.796184288Z",
     "size": 27170520
    },
    {
     "id": "4526339ae51c3cdc97956a7a961c193c39dfc6bd9733b0d762a36c6881b5583a",
     "names": [
         "docker.io/library/ubuntu:latest"
     ],
     "digest": "sha256:193f7734ddd68e0fb24ba9af8c2b673aecb0227b026871f8e932dab45add7753",
     "created": "2017-10-10T20:59:05.10196344Z",
     "size": 126085200
    }
]

List all images sorted by the specified column — organize the chaos, periodt:

# podman images --sort repository
REPOSITORY                                   TAG      IMAGE ID       CREATED       SIZE
<none>                                      <none>   2460217d76fc   About a minute ago   4.41 MB
docker.io/library/alpine                    latest   3fd9065eaf02   5 months ago         4.41 MB
localhost/myapp                             latest   b2e0ad03474a   About a minute ago   4.41 MB
registry.access.redhat.com/rhel7            latest   7a840db7f020   2 weeks ago          211 MB
registry.fedoraproject.org/fedora           27       801894bc0e43   6 weeks ago          246 MB

Show the difference between listed images in use versus all images, including dangling images — this is the “wait, where did those extra images come from?” moment:

# podman images
REPOSITORY                 TAG      IMAGE ID       CREATED         SIZE
localhost/test             latest   18f0c080cd72   4 seconds ago   4.42 MB
docker.io/library/alpine   latest   3fd9065eaf02   5 months ago    4.41 MB
# podman images -a
REPOSITORY                 TAG      IMAGE ID       CREATED         SIZE
localhost/test             latest   18f0c080cd72   6 seconds ago   4.42 MB
<none>                     <none>   270e70dc54c0   7 seconds ago   4.42 MB
<none>                     <none>   4ed6fbe43414   8 seconds ago   4.41 MB
<none>                     <none>   6b0df8e71508   8 seconds ago   4.41 MB
docker.io/library/alpine   latest   3fd9065eaf02   5 months ago    4.41 MB

🌸 SEE ALSO 🌸

🛠️ Troubleshooting 🛠️

See podman-troubleshooting(7) for solutions to common issues.

👑 HISTORY 👑

March 2017, Originally compiled by Dan Walsh <dwalsh@redhat.com>.

💖 And that’s a wrap on podman-images(1), bestie — source, version, and date are doing their cute little footer thing, and we’re out. Bye! 💅✨

📦 where this page comes from

arch rolling: podman-docker 6.1.4-1 · Apache-2.0
💖 girlified by deepseek-ai/DeepSeek-V4.1-Flash-1017 on 2026-11-04: a language model's rewrite of the original, under its terms