podman-load(1) General Commands Manual podman-load(1)
NAME
podman-load - Load image(s) from a tar archive into container storage
SYNOPSIS
podman load [options]
podman image load [options]
DESCRIPTION
podman load loads an image from either an oci-archive or a docker-
archive stored on the local machine into container storage. podman load
reads from stdin by default or a file if the input option is set. pod-
man load is used for loading from the archive generated by podman save,
that includes the image parent layers. To load the archive of con-
tainer's filesystem created by podman export, use podman import.
The local client further supports loading an oci-dir or a docker-dir as
created with podman save (1).
The quiet option suppresses the progress output when set. Note: : is a
restricted character and cannot be part of the file name.
podman [GLOBAL OPTIONS]
podman load [GLOBAL OPTIONS]
podman load [OPTIONS]
OPTIONS
--help, -h
Print usage statement
--input, -i=input
Load the specified input file instead of from stdin. The file can be on
the local file system or on a server (e.g.,
https://server.com/archive.tar). Also supports loading in compressed
files.
The remote client, including Mac and Windows (excluding WSL2) machines,
requires the use of this option.
NOTE: Use the environment variable TMPDIR to change the temporary stor-
age location of container images. Podman defaults to use /var/tmp.
--quiet, -q
Suppress the progress output
EXAMPLES
Create an image from a compressed tar file, without showing progress.
$ podman load --quiet -i fedora.tar.gz
Create an image from the archive.tar file pulled from a URL, without
showing progress.
$ podman load -q -i https://server.com/archive.tar
Create an image from stdin using bash redirection from a tar file.
$ podman load < fedora.tar
Getting image source signatures
Copying blob sha256:5bef08742407efd622d243692b79ba0055383bbce12900324f75e56f589aedb0
0 B / 4.03 MB [---------------------------------------------------------------]
Copying config sha256:7328f6f8b41890597575cbaadc884e7386ae0acc53b747401ebce5cf0d624560
0 B / 1.48 KB [---------------------------------------------------------------]
Writing manifest to image destination
Storing signatures
Loaded image: registry.fedoraproject.org/fedora:latest
Create an image from stdin using a pipe.
$ cat fedora.tar | podman load
Getting image source signatures
Copying blob sha256:5bef08742407efd622d243692b79ba0055383bbce12900324f75e56f589aedb0
0 B / 4.03 MB [---------------------------------------------------------------]
Copying config sha256:7328f6f8b41890597575cbaadc884e7386ae0acc53b747401ebce5cf0d624560
0 B / 1.48 KB [---------------------------------------------------------------]
Writing manifest to image destination
Storing signatures
Loaded image: registry.fedoraproject.org/fedora:latest
SEE ALSO
podman(1), podman-save(1)
HISTORY
July 2017, Originally compiled by Urvashi Mohnani umohnani@redhat.com
⟨mailto:umohnani@redhat.com⟩
podman-load(1)
Generated by dwww version 1.16 on Tue Dec 16 06:21:31 CET 2025.