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Free up space in the registry
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Free up space in the registry

With Garbage Collection, you can free up space in the Container Registry. The service collects unused data that can be deleted:

  • image layers, which is not referenced by any manifest;
  • images without tags, which appear after images are updated.

Layers of images⁠

The container image is described in the manifest, it contains a description of the image layers (layers).

Each layer contains image changes relative to the previous layer. The final layer brings all the layers together and is the actual version of the look.

Example of layer description in a manifest (read more about Image Format Specification):

{ "layers": [
  {
    "mediaType": "application/vnd.docker.image.tar.gzip",
    "size": 48394,
    "digest": "sha256:b6bc5667d566e6c6"
  },
  {
    "mediaType": "application/vnd.docker.image.tar.gzip",
    "size": 17453,
    "digest": "sha256:1205abcd5b522e6b"
  },
  {
    "mediaType": "application/vnd.docker.image.tar.gzip",
    "size": 35279,
    "digest": "sha256:fa46023e1248d8676"
  }
]

A single layer can be used by multiple manifests. Garbage Collection collects layers that are not referenced by any manifest --- such layers do not use images and can be safely deleted.

Launch Garbage Collection⁠

To remove unused data in the registry, you need to manually run Garbage Collection.

For your information

During the data removal (registry cleanup) process, you can download images, but you cannot download new images — the layers of the downloaded image may be deleted and this will cause an error in the image.

  1. In Control Panel, go to Cloud Platform → Container Registry.
  2. The registry page will show the amount of unused data in that registry. Press Clear.
  3. Optional: check the Objects without tags checkbox to remove them additionally. By default, only unused image layers are deleted.
  4. Press Clear.