Consequences of deleting an Docker Image in the file system

[madushajg]

I have a requirement to delete a docker image that does not reference by any other image. There is no endpoint in the docker registry V2 API to accomplish this. I would like to know what are the consequences if I delete the image in the file system (var/lib/registry..) recursively. Your comments are highly appreciated.

[zymzxq]

What does a docker image that does not reference by any other image mean?

[madushajg]

It means the image that expected to be deleted is not used by any other image.
img1 <- img2 <- img3
Think there are 3 images img1, img2, img3, and img3 is referred by img2 while img2 is referred by img1. But img3 is not referred by any image.

[markzhang0928]

If you delete an image file from filesystem directly, you could hardly to keep the consistency which cache in-memory if you enabled it.

it's confused that the delete request via registry delete api is just remove the link file. There are some issues related to this function. So, I wonder if the distribution project could support the 'hard' delete?

Joxit/docker-registry-ui#53
goharbor/harbor#8934