1podman-cp(1)() podman-cp(1)()
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6 podman-cp - Copy files/folders between a container and the local
7 filesystem
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11 podman cp [container:]src_path [container:]dest_path
12 podman container cp [container:]src_path [container:]dest_path
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18 Copy the contents of src_path to the dest_path. You can copy from the
19 container's filesystem to the local machine or the reverse, from the
20 local filesystem to the container. If - is specified for either the
21 SRC_PATH or DEST_PATH, you can also stream a tar archive from STDIN or
22 to STDOUT.
23 The CONTAINER can be a running or stopped container. The src_path or
26 dest_path can be a file or directory.
27 The podman cp command assumes container paths are relative to the con‐
30 tainer's root directory (i.e., /).
31 This means supplying the initial forward slash is optional;
34 The command sees compassionate_darwin:/tmp/foo/myfile.txt and compas‐
37 sionate_darwin:tmp/foo/myfile.txt as identical.
38 Local machine paths can be an absolute or relative value. The command
41 interprets a local machine's relative paths as relative to the current
42 working directory where podman cp is run.
43 Assuming a path separator of /, a first argument of src_path and second
46 argument of dest_path, the behavior is as follows:
47 src_path specifies a file
50 - dest_path does not exist
51 - the file is saved to a file created at dest_path (note that par‐
52 ent directory must exist)
53 - dest_path exists and is a file
54 - the destination is overwritten with the source file's contents
55 - dest_path exists and is a directory
56 - the file is copied into this directory using the basename from
57 src_path
58 src_path specifies a directory
61 - dest_path does not exist
62 - dest_path is created as a directory and the contents of the
63 source directory are copied into this directory
64 - dest_path exists and is a file
65 - Error condition: cannot copy a directory to a file
66 - dest_path exists and is a directory
67 - src_path ends with /
68 - the source directory is copied into this directory
69 - src_path ends with /. (i.e., slash followed by dot)
70 - the content of the source directory is copied into this direc‐
71 tory
72 The command requires src_path and dest_path to exist according to the
75 above rules.
76 If src_path is local and is a symbolic link, the symbolic target, is
79 copied by default.
80 A colon (:) is used as a delimiter between CONTAINER and its path.
83 You can also use : when specifying paths to a src_path or dest_path on
86 a local machine, for example, file:name.txt.
87 If you use a : in a local machine path, you must be explicit with a
90 relative or absolute path, for example: /path/to/file:name.txt or
91 ./file:name.txt
92 Using - as the src_path streams the contents of STDIN as a tar archive.
95 The command extracts the content of the tar to the DEST_PATH in the
96 container. In this case, dest_path must specify a directory. Using - as
97 the dest_path streams the contents of the resource (can be a directory)
98 as a tar archive to STDOUT.
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103 Podman has much stronger capabilities than just podman cp to achieve
104 copy files between host and container.
105 Using standard podman-mount and podman-umount takes advantage of the
108 entire linux tool chain, rather then just cp.
109 If a user wants to copy contents out of a container or into a con‐
112 tainer, they can execute a few simple commands.
113 You can copy from the container's file system to the local machine or
116 the reverse, from the local filesystem to the container.
117 If you want to copy the /etc/foobar directory out of a container and
120 onto /tmp on the host, you could execute the following commands:
121 mnt=$(podman mount CONTAINERID)
124 cp -R ${mnt}/etc/foobar /tmp
125 podman umount CONTAINERID
126 If you want to untar a tar ball into a container, you can execute these
130 commands:
131 mnt=$(podman mount CONTAINERID)
134 tar xf content.tgz -C ${mnt}
135 podman umount CONTAINERID
136 One last example, if you want to install a package into a container
140 that does not have dnf installed, you could execute something like:
141 mnt=$(podman mount CONTAINERID)
144 dnf install --installroot=${mnt} httpd
145 chroot ${mnt} rm -rf /var/log/dnf /var/cache/dnf
146 podman umount CONTAINERID
147 This shows that using podman mount and podman umount you can use all of
151 the standard linux tools for moving files into and out of containers,
152 not just the cp command.
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156 podman cp /myapp/app.conf containerID:/myapp/app.conf
157 podman cp /home/myuser/myfiles.tar containerID:/tmp
160 podman cp containerID:/myapp/ /myapp/
163 podman cp containerID:/home/myuser/. /home/myuser/
166 podman cp - containerID:/myfiles.tar.gz < myfiles.tar.gz
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172 podman(1), podman-mount(1), podman-umount(1)
173 podman-cp(1)()