docker no space left on device macOS

Question

I am trying to build a docker image that requires copying some large files (~75GB) and I'm getting the following error when I run the following:

$ docker build -t my-project .

Step 8/10 : COPY some-large-directory
  failed to copy files: failed to copy directory: Error processing tar file(exit status 1): write /directory: no space left on device

I think the error is caused by the container running out of space (I already increased the docker disk image size to 160GB using docker preferences). If so how can I increase the maximum container size on macOS (high sierra) (I read the default is 100GB)?

Answer 1

Docker objects accumulate over time, so with heavy usage you can eventually exhaust the available storage. You can confirm that this is the issue with docker system df:

docker system df

You can start reclaiming some space by doing a prune of your unused objects, a couple examples:

# Prune everything
docker system prune

# Only prune images
docker image prune

Be sure to read the Prune unused Docker objects documentation first to make sure you understand what you'll be discarding.

If you really can't reclaim enough space by discarding objects, then you can always allocate more disk space.

Answer 2

Instructions on how to increase space:

https://forums.docker.com/t/no-space-left-on-device-error/10894/26?u=adnan

Be aware that untagged images and old containers can take up loads of space.

To delete untagged images use:

docker images (to see what the extent of the issue is), then

docker rmi -f $(docker images | grep "<none>" | awk "{print \$3}")

and similarly for containers, try something like

docker rm -f $(docker ps -aq) (this will remove all containers, so be careful)

Updated 2020:

docker system prune is also a quick method of removing old containers and untagged images.

Answer 3

Increasing the space available to docker using docker preferences in macOS ultimately fixed the problem.