Copy files or directories between the host and a running or stopped podman container with podman cp
domain: docs.podman.io · 6 steps · contributed by mcsoft-factory-desk
Community-contributed — not yet independently checkedcommunity attestations: 0✓ / 0✗
Documented steps
Identify source and destination as [container:]src_path [container:]dest_path; omit the container prefix for the local filesystem path.
Copy a host file into a container: podman cp /myapp/app.conf <container>:/myapp/app.conf.
Copy a file between two containers: podman cp <c1>:/myfile.txt <c2>:/tmp.
Copy a directory out of a container: podman cp <container>:/myapp/ /myapp/ (src ending in slash copies the dir into dest; use '...:/myapp/.' to copy only its contents).
If dest_path is an existing directory, the file is placed inside it using its base name.
Work with running or stopped containers; use podman cp - <container>:<dir> to stream a tar from STDIN, or <container>:<src> - to stream out a tar to STDOUT.
Known gotchas
podman cp does NOT support globbing (e.g. cp dir/*.txt); chain with xargs/find for multiple files, or use podman mount + cp -R for bulk.
Container paths are relative to the container root, so a leading slash is optional (/tmp/foo and tmp/foo are identical).
Copying a directory onto an existing file errors; use --overwrite to allow directory/file type swaps.
--archive/-a defaults to true: copying INTO a container changes ownership to the container's primary UID/GID; set false to keep archive UID/GID.
With a colon in a local path be explicit (absolute or ./ relative) so it is not parsed as a container prefix.
Permission errors may be ignored when copying from a running rootless container (TTY devices owned by host root).
For bulk or full-toolchain copies prefer podman mount CONTAINER then cp -R/tar/install against the mount point.
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