github.com/pwn-term/docker@v0.0.0-20210616085119-6e977cce2565/cli/docs/reference/commandline/cp.md (about) 1 --- 2 title: "cp" 3 description: "The cp command description and usage" 4 keywords: "copy, container, files, folders" 5 --- 6 7 # cp 8 9 ```markdown 10 Usage: docker cp [OPTIONS] CONTAINER:SRC_PATH DEST_PATH|- 11 docker cp [OPTIONS] SRC_PATH|- CONTAINER:DEST_PATH 12 13 Copy files/folders between a container and the local filesystem 14 15 Use '-' as the source to read a tar archive from stdin 16 and extract it to a directory destination in a container. 17 Use '-' as the destination to stream a tar archive of a 18 container source to stdout. 19 20 Options: 21 -L, --follow-link Always follow symbol link in SRC_PATH 22 -a, --archive Archive mode (copy all uid/gid information) 23 --help Print usage 24 ``` 25 26 ## Description 27 28 The `docker cp` utility copies the contents of `SRC_PATH` to the `DEST_PATH`. 29 You can copy from the container's file system to the local machine or the 30 reverse, from the local filesystem to the container. If `-` is specified for 31 either the `SRC_PATH` or `DEST_PATH`, you can also stream a tar archive from 32 `STDIN` or to `STDOUT`. The `CONTAINER` can be a running or stopped container. 33 The `SRC_PATH` or `DEST_PATH` can be a file or directory. 34 35 The `docker cp` command assumes container paths are relative to the container's 36 `/` (root) directory. This means supplying the initial forward slash is optional; 37 The command sees `compassionate_darwin:/tmp/foo/myfile.txt` and 38 `compassionate_darwin:tmp/foo/myfile.txt` as identical. Local machine paths can 39 be an absolute or relative value. The command interprets a local machine's 40 relative paths as relative to the current working directory where `docker cp` is 41 run. 42 43 The `cp` command behaves like the Unix `cp -a` command in that directories are 44 copied recursively with permissions preserved if possible. Ownership is set to 45 the user and primary group at the destination. For example, files copied to a 46 container are created with `UID:GID` of the root user. Files copied to the local 47 machine are created with the `UID:GID` of the user which invoked the `docker cp` 48 command. However, if you specify the `-a` option, `docker cp` sets the ownership 49 to the user and primary group at the source. 50 If you specify the `-L` option, `docker cp` follows any symbolic link 51 in the `SRC_PATH`. `docker cp` does *not* create parent directories for 52 `DEST_PATH` if they do not exist. 53 54 Assuming a path separator of `/`, a first argument of `SRC_PATH` and second 55 argument of `DEST_PATH`, the behavior is as follows: 56 57 - `SRC_PATH` specifies a file 58 - `DEST_PATH` does not exist 59 - the file is saved to a file created at `DEST_PATH` 60 - `DEST_PATH` does not exist and ends with `/` 61 - Error condition: the destination directory must exist. 62 - `DEST_PATH` exists and is a file 63 - the destination is overwritten with the source file's contents 64 - `DEST_PATH` exists and is a directory 65 - the file is copied into this directory using the basename from 66 `SRC_PATH` 67 - `SRC_PATH` specifies a directory 68 - `DEST_PATH` does not exist 69 - `DEST_PATH` is created as a directory and the *contents* of the source 70 directory are copied into this directory 71 - `DEST_PATH` exists and is a file 72 - Error condition: cannot copy a directory to a file 73 - `DEST_PATH` exists and is a directory 74 - `SRC_PATH` does not end with `/.` (that is: _slash_ followed by _dot_) 75 - the source directory is copied into this directory 76 - `SRC_PATH` does end with `/.` (that is: _slash_ followed by _dot_) 77 - the *content* of the source directory is copied into this 78 directory 79 80 The command requires `SRC_PATH` and `DEST_PATH` to exist according to the above 81 rules. If `SRC_PATH` is local and is a symbolic link, the symbolic link, not 82 the target, is copied by default. To copy the link target and not the link, specify 83 the `-L` option. 84 85 A colon (`:`) is used as a delimiter between `CONTAINER` and its path. You can 86 also use `:` when specifying paths to a `SRC_PATH` or `DEST_PATH` on a local 87 machine, for example `file:name.txt`. If you use a `:` in a local machine path, 88 you must be explicit with a relative or absolute path, for example: 89 90 `/path/to/file:name.txt` or `./file:name.txt` 91 92 It is not possible to copy certain system files such as resources under 93 `/proc`, `/sys`, `/dev`, [tmpfs](run.md#mount-tmpfs---tmpfs), and mounts created by 94 the user in the container. However, you can still copy such files by manually 95 running `tar` in `docker exec`. Both of the following examples do the same thing 96 in different ways (consider `SRC_PATH` and `DEST_PATH` are directories): 97 98 ```bash 99 $ docker exec CONTAINER tar Ccf $(dirname SRC_PATH) - $(basename SRC_PATH) | tar Cxf DEST_PATH - 100 ``` 101 102 ```bash 103 $ tar Ccf $(dirname SRC_PATH) - $(basename SRC_PATH) | docker exec -i CONTAINER tar Cxf DEST_PATH - 104 ``` 105 106 Using `-` as the `SRC_PATH` streams the contents of `STDIN` as a tar archive. 107 The command extracts the content of the tar to the `DEST_PATH` in container's 108 filesystem. In this case, `DEST_PATH` must specify a directory. Using `-` as 109 the `DEST_PATH` streams the contents of the resource as a tar archive to `STDOUT`.