How to Copy Files from Host to Docker Container?

When creating a docker image, you may want to copy some files from the host machine to the docker image. These files may be native libraries, configuration files, or any other files that will be needed at runtime.

How to add files to Docker container

To copy a specific file from the host machine to the Docker container, you can use the docker cp command:

docker cp source/file.txt container_id:/destination/file.tx

• source/file.txt - Is a path to the source file
• container_id - Is the name of the docker container to which the file will be copied to
• /destination/file.tx - Is a destination within the container to which the file will be copied to

You can copy multiple files by specifying a directory instead of a file

docker cp src/. container_id:/target

Commit changes to new image

Another command you may need is docker commit. It can be useful to commit a container’s file changes or settings into a new image. This allows you to debug a container by running an interactive shell, or to export a working dataset to another server.

docker commit container_id new_image_name

Got an article suggestion? Let us know

Explore more

Docker

How to set up a cron job for a specific time and date?

In this quick tutorial, we will take a look at how to set up a cron job to run at a specific time.

Questions

How to Connect to the Localhost of the Machine from inside of a Docker Container?

Questions

How to Copy Docker Images from One Host to Another without Using a Repository

Questions

Solved: Errors in crontab file, can't install

You may encounter this error while creating a new crontab or updating an existing one that has a syntax error.

Questions

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.