Before we start, did you have followed the setup steps described at here

Overview

On this article, you will be able to learn how to transfer files between your machine and a docker container.

Our container of example in this article is the r_geofracker which we created at this guide.

There is two possible direction to move the files: - 1: from your machine to the container - 2: from the container to your machine.

Copying files to the containers

If you want to copy a file from your machine to a container, you just need to run:

docker cp /file/path/filename <container_name>:/folder/on/container/filename

#eg:(our default container name is r_geofracker)
docker cp /var/teste.txt r_geofracker:/home/rstudio/teste.txt

This would copy the file /var/teste.txt from your machine to the path at /home/rstudio/teste.txt at the container running with the name r_geofracker.

Copying files from containers

If you want to copy a file from an container to to your machine, you just need to run:

docker cp <container_name>:/folder/on/container/filename /file/path/filename

#eg:(our default container name is r_geofracker)
docker cp r_geofracker:/home/rstudio/testeBack.txt /var/testeBack.txt

This would copy the file /home/rstudio/testeBack.txt from your cointainer named r_geofracker to the file /var/testeBack.txt at your machine.

Final thoughts

Now, you can move files from and to your container.

References

https://docs.docker.com/engine/reference/commandline/cp/