How to copy files from host to Docker container?

Question

I am trying to build a backup and restore solution for the Docker containers that we work with.

I have Docker base image that I have created, ubuntu:base

Answer 1

This is the command to copy data from Docker to Host:

docker cp container_id:file path/filename /hostpath

docker cp a13fb9c9e674:/tmp/dgController.log /tmp/

Below is the command to copy data from host to docker:

docker cp a.txt ccfbeb35116b:/home/

Answer 2

Another solution for copying files into a running container is using tar:

tar -c foo.sh | docker exec -i theDockerContainer /bin/tar -C /tmp -x

Copies the file foo.sh into /tmp of the container.

Edit: Remove reduntant -f, thanks to Maartens comment.

Answer 3

I tried most of the (upvoted) solutions here but in docker 17.09 (in 2018) there is no longer /var/lib/docker/aufs folder.

This simple docker cp solved this task.

docker cp c:\path\to\local\file container_name:/path/to/target/dir/

How to get container_name?

 docker ps 

There is a NAMES section. Don't use aIMAGE.

Answer 4

In a docker environment, all containers are found in the directory:

/var/lib/docker/aufs/required-docker-id/

To copy the source directory/file to any part of the container, type the given command:

sudo cp -r mydir/ /var/lib/docker/aufs/mnt/required-docker-id/mnt/

Answer 5

If you need to do this on a running container you can use docker exec (added in 1.3).

First, find the container's name or ID:

$ docker ps
CONTAINER ID        IMAGE                        COMMAND             CREATED             STATUS              PORTS                   NAMES
b9b7400ffffd8f        ubuntu:latest                "/bin/bash"         2 seconds ago       Up 2 seconds                                elated_hodgkin

In the example above we can either use b9b7400ffffd8f or elated_hodgkin.

If you wanted to copy everything in /tmp/somefiles on the host to /var/www in the container:

$ cd /tmp/somefiles
$ tar -cv * | docker exec -i elated_hodgkin tar x -C /var/www

We can then exec /bin/bash in the container and verify it worked:

$ docker exec -it elated_hodgkin /bin/bash
root@b9b7400ffffd8f:/# ls /var/www
file1  file2

Answer 6

With Docker 1.8, docker cp is able to copy files from host to container. See the Docker blog post Announcing Docker 1.8: Content Trust, Toolbox, and Updates to Registry and Orchestration.