podman-cp(1) General Commands Manual podman-cp(1)
NAME
podman-cp - Copy files/folders between a container and the local
filesystem
SYNOPSIS
podman cp [options] [container:]src_path [container:]dest_path
podman container cp [options] [container:]src_path [container:]dest_path
DESCRIPTION
podman cp allows copying the contents of src_path to the dest_path.
Files can be copied from a container to the local machine and vice versa
or between two containers. If - is specified for either the SRC_PATH or
DEST_PATH, one can also stream a tar archive from STDIN or to STDOUT.
The containers can be either running or stopped and the src_path or
dest_path can be a file or directory.
*IMPORTANT: The podman cp command assumes container paths are relative
to the container's root directory (/), which means supplying the initial
forward slash is optional and therefore sees compassionate_dar-
win:/tmp/foo/myfile.txt and compassionate_darwin:tmp/foo/myfile.txt as
identical.*
Local machine paths can be an absolute or relative value. The command
interprets a local machine's relative paths as relative to the current
working directory where podman cp is run.
Assuming a path separator of /, a first argument of src_path and second
argument of dest_path, the behavior is as follows:
src_path specifies a file:
- dest_path does not exist
- the file is saved to a file created at dest_path (note that parent
directory must exist).
- dest_path exists and is a file
- the destination is overwritten with the source file's contents.
- dest_path exists and is a directory
- the file is copied into this directory using the base name from
src_path.
src_path specifies a directory:
- dest_path does not exist
- dest_path is created as a directory and the contents of the source
directory are copied into this directory.
- dest_path exists and is a file
- Error condition: cannot copy a directory to a file.
- dest_path exists and is a directory
- src_path ends with /
- the source directory is copied into this directory.
- src_path ends with /. (i.e., slash followed by dot)
- the content of the source directory is copied into this direc-
tory.
The command requires src_path and dest_path to exist according to the
above rules.
If src_path is local and is a symbolic link, the symbolic target, is
copied by default.
A colon ( : ) is used as a delimiter between a container and its path,
it can also be used when specifying paths to a src_path or dest_path on
a local machine, for example, file:name.txt.
*IMPORTANT: while using a colon ( : ) in a local machine path, one must
be explicit with a relative or absolute path, for example:
/path/to/file:name.txt or ./file:name.txt*
Using - as the src_path streams the contents of STDIN as a tar archive.
The command extracts the content of the tar to the DEST_PATH in the con-
tainer. In this case, dest_path must specify a directory. Using - as the
dest_path streams the contents of the resource (can be a directory) as a
tar archive to STDOUT.
Note that podman cp ignores permission errors when copying from a run-
ning rootless container. The TTY devices inside a rootless container
are owned by the host's root user and hence cannot be read inside the
container's user namespace.
Further note that podman cp does not support globbing (e.g., cp
dir/*.txt). To copy multiple files from the host to the container use
xargs(1) or find(1) (or similar tools for chaining commands) in conjunc-
tion with podman cp. To copy multiple files from the container to the
host, use podman mount CONTAINER and operate on the returned mount point
instead (see ALTERNATIVES below).
OPTIONS
--archive, -a
Archive mode (copy all UID/GID information). When set to true, files
copied to a container have changed ownership to the primary UID/GID of
the container. When set to false, maintain UID/GID from archive sources
instead of changing them to the primary UID/GID of the destination con-
tainer. The default is true.
--overwrite
Allow directories to be overwritten with non-directories and vice versa.
By default, podman cp errors out when attempting to overwrite, for in-
stance, a regular file with a directory.
ALTERNATIVES
Podman has much stronger capabilities than just podman cp to achieve
copying files between the host and containers.
Using standard podman-mount(1) and podman-unmount(1) takes advantage of
the entire linux tool chain, rather than just cp.
copying contents out of a container or into a container, can be achieved
with a few simple commands. For example:
To copy the /etc/foobar directory out of a container and onto /tmp on
the host, the following commands can be executed:
mnt=$(podman mount CONTAINERID)
cp -R ${mnt}/etc/foobar /tmp
podman umount CONTAINERID
To untar a tar ball into a container, following commands can be exe-
cuted:
mnt=$(podman mount CONTAINERID)
tar xf content.tgz -C ${mnt}
podman umount CONTAINERID
To install a package into a container that does not have dnf installed,
following commands can be executed:
mnt=$(podman mount CONTAINERID)
dnf install --installroot=${mnt} httpd
chroot ${mnt} rm -rf /var/log/dnf /var/cache/dnf
podman umount CONTAINERID
By using podman mount and podman unmount, one can use all of the stan-
dard linux tools for moving files into and out of containers, not just
the cp command.
EXAMPLES
Copy a file from the host to a container:
podman cp /myapp/app.conf containerID:/myapp/app.conf
Copy a file from a container to a directory on another container:
podman cp containerID1:/myfile.txt containerID2:/tmp
Copy a directory on a container to a directory on the host:
podman cp containerID:/myapp/ /myapp/
Copy the contents of a directory on a container to a directory on the
host:
podman cp containerID:/home/myuser/. /home/myuser/
Copy a directory on a container into a directory on another:
podman cp containerA:/myapp containerB:/newapp
Stream a tar archive from STDIN to a container:
podman cp - containerID:/myfiles.tar.gz < myfiles.tar.gz
SEE ALSO
podman(1), podman-mount(1), podman-unmount(1)
podman-cp(1)
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