containers

`docker cp`

Copies files and directories between a container's filesystem and the host. Works on both running and stopped containers.

Syntax

docker cp [OPTIONS] SRC_PATH|CONTAINER:SRC_PATH DEST_PATH|CONTAINER:DEST_PATH

Common flags

Flag	Purpose
-a, --archive	Preserve UID/GID information from the source
-L, --follow-link	Follow symbolic links in SRC_PATH
-q, --quiet	Suppress progress output

Examples

docker cp web:/etc/nginx/nginx.conf ./nginx.conf

Pull config out of a container

docker cp ./patch.sh web:/tmp/patch.sh

Copy a script into a container

docker cp db:/var/lib/postgresql/data ./backup

Recursive directory copy

docker cp - web:/app < archive.tar

Stream a tar archive into a container

Gotcha

Trailing slash rules mirror rsync — cp SRC/. DEST copies contents, while cp SRC DEST copies the directory itself. On Windows hosts, path drive letters (C:\) can conflict with the CONTAINER: syntax; use quotes or WSL paths.

Related commands

docker exec

Runs a new command inside an already running container. Commonly used for shells, debugging, or one-off maintenance tasks.

docker volume

Manages persistent named volumes for containers — create, list, inspect, remove, and prune. Named volumes survive container removal and are the recommended storage mechanism over bind mounts for stateful data.

docker run

Creates and starts a new container from a specified image in a single step. This is the primary command for launching workloads and supports extensive configuration for networking, storage, and process control.

docker inspect

Returns low-level JSON metadata about Docker objects — containers, images, networks, volumes, and more. Supports Go template formatting for extracting specific fields.

docker ps

Lists containers along with their status, ports, and identifiers. By default it shows only running containers unless -a is passed.

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