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Docker Root Directory

Docker Root Directory

June 11, 2026·Abid
Abid

By default docker stores all of it’s data in /var/lib/docker/. So the root directory gets busy. To keep root directory being filled up we can move the docker’s --data-root into somewhere else.

So we’ll create a storage partition/volume and mount docker --data-root there:

stop the docker daemon 

sudo systemctl stop docker.service
sudo systemctl stop docker.socket

Method 01

edit the /etc/docker/daemon.json file

add this key in /etc/docker/daemon.json :

{
    "data-root": "/docker"
}

Important

Method 01 is the preferred method.

Method 02

edit the /lib/systemd/system/docker.service

Add the following line with the custom directory

# comment out this line (you can edit the line instead of commenting out)
# ExecStart=/usr/bin/dockerd -H fd:// -- containerd=/run/containerd/containerd.sock

# add this line
ExecStart=/usr/bin/dockerd --data-root /docker -H fd:// --containerd=/run/containerd/containerd.sock

copy the existing docker data 

sudo rsync -aHAXP /var/lib/docker/ /docker

Note

you can skip this step if you want docker to behave like new installation or don’t mind losing your previous containers and images data.

restart the docker daemon 

sudo systemctl daemon-reload && sudo systemctl start docker
sudo systemctl status docker --no-pager

verify if docker root directory changed 

ps aux | grep -i docker | grep -v grep
docker info --format '{{.DockerRootDir}}'

Refs:

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