Pulling Images and Tags

Pull an image

docker pull downloads an image without running it. Useful when you want the layers ready before a demo or deploy.

docker pull nginx
docker pull python:3.12-slim

Read a tag

The part after the colon is the tag. nginx:latest moves over time; nginx:1.27 or a digest is more predictable for real projects.

docker pull nginx:1.27
docker images nginx

Understand the default

If you omit the tag, Docker uses latest. That is fine for exploration, but pin versions when sharing setups with teammates.

Remove unused images

List images, then remove one by name:tag when nothing needs it.

docker images
docker rmi nginx:1.27