1podman-cp(1)() podman-cp(1)()
2
6 podman-cp - Copy files/folders between a container and the local
7 filesystem
8
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 base name 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.
99 Note that podman cp ignores permission errors when copying from a run‐
102 ning rootless container. The TTY devices inside a rootless container
103 are owned by the host's root user and hence cannot be read inside the
104 container's user namespace.
105
109 Podman has much stronger capabilities than just podman cp to achieve
110 copy files between host and container.
111 Using standard podman-mount and podman-umount takes advantage of the
114 entire linux tool chain, rather then just cp.
115 If a user wants to copy contents out of a container or into a con‐
118 tainer, they can execute a few simple commands.
119 You can copy from the container's file system to the local machine or
122 the reverse, from the local filesystem to the container.
123 If you want to copy the /etc/foobar directory out of a container and
126 onto /tmp on the host, you could execute the following commands:
127 mnt=$(podman mount CONTAINERID)
130 cp -R ${mnt}/etc/foobar /tmp
131 podman umount CONTAINERID
132 If you want to untar a tar ball into a container, you can execute these
136 commands:
137 mnt=$(podman mount CONTAINERID)
140 tar xf content.tgz -C ${mnt}
141 podman umount CONTAINERID
142 One last example, if you want to install a package into a container
146 that does not have dnf installed, you could execute something like:
147 mnt=$(podman mount CONTAINERID)
150 dnf install --installroot=${mnt} httpd
151 chroot ${mnt} rm -rf /var/log/dnf /var/cache/dnf
152 podman umount CONTAINERID
153 This shows that using podman mount and podman umount you can use all of
157 the standard linux tools for moving files into and out of containers,
158 not just the cp command.
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162 podman cp /myapp/app.conf containerID:/myapp/app.conf
163 podman cp /home/myuser/myfiles.tar containerID:/tmp
166 podman cp containerID:/myapp/ /myapp/
169 podman cp containerID:/home/myuser/. /home/myuser/
172 podman cp - containerID:/myfiles.tar.gz < myfiles.tar.gz
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178 podman(1), podman-mount(1), podman-umount(1)
179 podman-cp(1)()