--- title: kubectl cp content_type: tool-reference weight: 30 auto_generated: true description: >- Copy files and directories to and from containers no_list: true --- ## {{% heading "synopsis" %}} Copy files and directories to and from containers. ``` kubectl cp ``` ## {{% heading "examples" %}} ``` # !!!Important Note!!! # Requires that the 'tar' binary is present in your container # image. If 'tar' is not present, 'kubectl cp' will fail. # # For advanced use cases, such as symlinks, wildcard expansion or # file mode preservation, consider using 'kubectl exec'. # Copy /tmp/foo local file to /tmp/bar in a remote pod in namespace tar cf - /tmp/foo | kubectl exec -i -n -- tar xf - -C /tmp/bar # Copy /tmp/foo from a remote pod to /tmp/bar locally kubectl exec -n -- tar cf - /tmp/foo | tar xf - -C /tmp/bar # Copy /tmp/foo_dir local directory to /tmp/bar_dir in a remote pod in the default namespace kubectl cp /tmp/foo_dir :/tmp/bar_dir # Copy /tmp/foo local file to /tmp/bar in a remote pod in a specific container kubectl cp /tmp/foo :/tmp/bar -c # Copy /tmp/foo local file to /tmp/bar in a remote pod in namespace kubectl cp /tmp/foo /:/tmp/bar # Copy /tmp/foo from a remote pod to /tmp/bar locally kubectl cp /:/tmp/foo /tmp/bar ``` ## {{% heading "options" %}}
-c, --container string

Container name. If omitted, use the kubectl.kubernetes.io/default-container annotation for selecting the container to be attached or the first container in the pod will be chosen
-h, --help

help for cp
--no-preserve

The copied file/directory's ownership and permissions will not be preserved in the container
--retries int

Set number of retries to complete a copy operation from a container. Specify 0 to disable or any negative value for infinite retrying. The default is 0 (no retry).
## {{% heading "parentoptions" %}}
--as string

Username to impersonate for the operation. User could be a regular user or a service account in a namespace.
--as-group strings

Group to impersonate for the operation, this flag can be repeated to specify multiple groups.
--as-uid string

UID to impersonate for the operation.
--as-user-extra strings

User extras to impersonate for the operation, this flag can be repeated to specify multiple values for the same key.
--cache-dir string     Default: "$HOME/.kube/cache"

Default cache directory
--certificate-authority string

Path to a cert file for the certificate authority
--client-certificate string

Path to a client certificate file for TLS
--client-key string

Path to a client key file for TLS
--cluster string

The name of the kubeconfig cluster to use
--context string

The name of the kubeconfig context to use
--disable-compression

If true, opt-out of response compression for all requests to the server
--insecure-skip-tls-verify

If true, the server's certificate will not be checked for validity. This will make your HTTPS connections insecure
--kubeconfig string

Path to the kubeconfig file to use for CLI requests.
--kuberc string

Path to the kuberc file to use for preferences. This can be disabled by exporting KUBECTL_KUBERC=false feature gate or turning off the feature KUBERC=off.
--match-server-version

Require server version to match client version
-n, --namespace string

If present, the namespace scope for this CLI request
--password string

Password for basic authentication to the API server
--profile string     Default: "none"

Name of profile to capture. One of (none|cpu|heap|goroutine|threadcreate|block|mutex|trace)
--profile-output string     Default: "profile.pprof"

Name of the file to write the profile to
--request-timeout string     Default: "0"

The length of time to wait before giving up on a single server request. Non-zero values should contain a corresponding time unit (e.g. 1s, 2m, 3h). A value of zero means don't timeout requests.
-s, --server string

The address and port of the Kubernetes API server
--storage-driver-buffer-duration duration     Default: 1m0s

Writes in the storage driver will be buffered for this duration, and committed to the non memory backends as a single transaction
--storage-driver-db string     Default: "cadvisor"

database name
--storage-driver-host string     Default: "localhost:8086"

database host:port
--storage-driver-password string     Default: "root"

database password
--storage-driver-secure

use secure connection with database
--storage-driver-table string     Default: "stats"

table name
--storage-driver-user string     Default: "root"

database username
--tls-server-name string

Server name to use for server certificate validation. If it is not provided, the hostname used to contact the server is used
--token string

Bearer token for authentication to the API server
--user string

The name of the kubeconfig user to use
--username string

Username for basic authentication to the API server
--version version[=true]

--version, --version=raw prints version information and quits; --version=vX.Y.Z... sets the reported version
--warnings-as-errors

Treat warnings received from the server as errors and exit with a non-zero exit code
## {{% heading "seealso" %}} * [kubectl](../kubectl/) - kubectl controls the Kubernetes cluster manager