cp
Usage: docker cp [OPTIONS] CONTAINER:SRC_PATH DEST_PATH | - docker cp [OPTIONS] SRC_PATH | - CONTAINER:DEST_PATH Copy files/folders between a container and the local filesystem -L, --follow-link Always follow symbol link in SRC_PATH --help Print usage
The docker cp
utility copies the contents of SRC_PATH
to the DEST_PATH
. You can copy from the container’s file system to the local machine or the reverse, from the local filesystem to the container. If -
is specified for either the SRC_PATH
or DEST_PATH
, you can also stream a tar archive from STDIN
or to STDOUT
. The CONTAINER
can be a running or stopped container. The SRC_PATH
or DEST_PATH
can be a file or directory.
The docker cp
command assumes container paths are relative to the container’s /
(root) directory. This means supplying the initial forward slash is optional; The command sees compassionate_darwin:/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 docker cp
is run.
The cp
command behaves like the Unix cp -a
command in that directories are copied recursively with permissions preserved if possible. Ownership is set to the user and primary group at the destination. For example, files copied to a container are created with UID:GID
of the root user. Files copied to the local machine are created with the UID:GID
of the user which invoked the docker cp
command. If you specify the -L
option, docker cp
follows any symbolic link in the SRC_PATH
. docker cp
does not create parent directories for DEST_PATH
if they do not exist.
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
- the file is saved to a file created at
-
DEST_PATH
does not exist and ends with/
- Error condition: the destination 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 basename from
SRC_PATH
- the file is copied into this directory using the basename from
-
-
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
does not end with/.
- the source directory is copied into this directory
-
SRC_PATH
does end with/.
- the content of the source directory is copied into this directory
-
-
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 link, not the target, is copied by default. To copy the link target and not the link, specify the -L
option.
A colon (:
) is used as a delimiter between CONTAINER
and its path. You can also use :
when specifying paths to a SRC_PATH
or DEST_PATH
on a local machine, for example file:name.txt
. If you use a :
in a local machine path, you must be explicit with a relative or absolute path, for example:
`/path/to/file:name.txt` or `./file:name.txt`
It is not possible to copy certain system files such as resources under /proc
, /sys
, /dev
, tmpfs, and mounts created by the user in the container. However, you can still copy such files by manually running tar
in docker exec
. For example (consider SRC_PATH
and DEST_PATH
are directories):
$ docker exec foo tar Ccf $(dirname SRC_PATH) - $(basename SRC_PATH) | tar Cxf DEST_PATH -
or
$ tar Ccf $(dirname SRC_PATH) - $(basename SRC_PATH) | docker exec -i foo tar Cxf DEST_PATH -
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 container’s filesystem. In this case, DEST_PATH
must specify a directory. Using -
as the DEST_PATH
streams the contents of the resource as a tar archive to STDOUT
.
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