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NAME | SYNOPSIS | DESCRIPTION | OPTIONS | COPY HOOK | COMMON OPTIONS | SEE ALSO | COLOPHON |
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lxc-copy(1) lxc-copy(1)
lxc-copy - copy an existing container.
lxc-copy {-n, --name name} [-P, --lxcpath path] {-N, --newname
newname} [-p, --newpath newpath] [-B, --backingstorage
backingstorage] [-s, --snapshot] [-a, --allowrunning]
[-K, --keepname] [-D, --keepdata] [-M, --keepmac] [-L,
--fssize size [unit]] [-- hook arguments]
lxc-copy {-n, --name name} [-P, --lxcpath path] [-N, --newname
newname] [-p, --newpath newpath] {-e, --ephemeral} [-B,
--backingstorage backingstorage] [-s, --snapshot] [-a,
--allowrunning] [-K, --keepname] [-D, --keepdata] [-M,
--keepmac] [-L, --fssize size [unit]] [-- hook arguments]
lxc-copy {-n, --name name} [-P, --lxcpath path] [-N, --newname
newname] [-p, --newpath newpath] {-e, --ephemeral} [-B,
--backingstorage backingstorage] [-s, --snapshot] [-t,
--tmpfs] [-K, --keepname] [-M, --keepmac] [-- hook
arguments]
lxc-copy {-n, --name name} [-P, --lxcpath path] {-N, --newname
newname} [-p, --newpath newpath] {-R, --rename}
lxc-copy creates and optionally starts (ephemeral or non-ephemer‐
al) copies of existing containers.
lxc-copy creates copies of existing containers. Copies can be com‐
plete clones of the original container. In this case the whole
root filesystem of the container is simply copied to the new con‐
tainer. Or they can be snapshots, i.e. small copy-on-write copies
of the original container. In this case the specified backing
storage for the copy must support snapshots. This currently in‐
cludes btrfs, lvm (lvm devices do not support snapshots of snap‐
shots.), overlay, and zfs.
The copy's backing storage will be of the same type as the origi‐
nal container. overlay snapshots of directory backed containers
are exempted from this rule.
When the -e flag is specified an ephemeral snapshot of the origi‐
nal container is created and started. Ephemeral containers will
have lxc.ephemeral = 1 set in their config file and will be de‐
stroyed on shutdown. When -e is used in combination with -D a non-
ephemeral snapshot of the original container is created and start‐
ed. Ephemeral containers can also be placed on a tmpfs with -t
flag. NOTE: If an ephemeral container that is placed on a tmpfs is
rebooted all changes made to it will currently be lost!
When -e is specified and no newname is given via -N a random name
for the snapshot will be chosen.
Containers created and started with -e can have custom mounts.
These are specified with the -m flag. Currently two types of
mounts are supported: bind, and overlay. Mount types are specified
as suboptions to the -m flag and can be specified multiple times
separated by commas. overlay mounts are currently specified in the
format -m overlay=/src:/dest. When no destination dest is speci‐
fied dest will be identical to src. Read-only bind mounts are
specified -m bind=/src:/dest:ro and read-write bind mounts -m
bind=/src:/dest:rw. Read-write bind mounts are the default and rw
can be missing when a read-write mount is wanted. When dest is
missing dest will be identical to src. An example for multiple
mounts would be -m bind=/src1:/dest1:ro,bind=/src2:ro,over‐
lay=/src3:/dest3.
The mounts, their options, and formats supported via the -m flag
are subject to change.
-N,--newname newname
The name for the copy.
-p,--newpath newpath
The path for the copy.
-R,--rename
Rename the original container.
-s,--snapshot
Create a snapshot of the original container. The backing
storage for the copy must support snapshots. This currently
includes btrfs, lvm, overlay, and zfs.
-a,--allowrunning
Allow the creation of a Snapshot of an already running con‐
tainer. This may cause data corruption or data loss de‐
pending on the used filesystem and applications. Use with
care.
-F,--foreground
Run the snapshot in the foreground. The snapshots console
will be attached to the current tty. (This option can only
be specified in conjunction with -e.)
-d, --daemon
Run the snapshot as a daemon (This is the default mode for
ephemeral containers.). As the container has no more tty,
if an error occurs nothing will be displayed, the log file
can be used to check the error. (This option can only be
specified in conjunction with -e.)
-m, --mount mounttype
Specify a mount for a snapshot The opts argument for the
mount type can by of type {bind, overlay}. For example -m
bind=/src:/dest:ro,overlay=/src:/dest (This option can cur‐
rently only be specified in conjunction with -e.).
-t, --tmpfs
When this option is specified the ephemeral container will
be placed on a tmpfs. NOTE: Rebooting an ephemeral contain‐
er that is located on a tmpfs will currently cause all
changes made to it to be lost. This flag will only work for
ephemeral containers created with the -e flag. The original
container, from which the ephemeral snapshot is created,
must be stored as a simple directory.
-B, --backingstorage backingstorage
Specify the backing storage type to be used for the copy
where 'backingstorage' is of type 'btrfs', 'dir', 'lvm',
'loop', 'overlay', or 'zfs'.
-L, --fssize size [unit]
Specify the size for an 'lvm' filesystem.
-K, --keepname
When this option is specified the hostname of the original
container will be kept for the copy.
-D, --keepdata
When this option is specified with -e a non-ephemeral con‐
tainer is created and started.
-M, --keepmac
When this option is specified the MAC address of the origi‐
nal container will be kept for the copy.
If the container being copied has one or more lxc.hook.clone spec‐
ified, then the specified hooks will be called for the new con‐
tainer. The first 3 arguments passed to the clone hook will be the
container name, a section ('lxc'), and the hook type ('clone').
Extra arguments passed to lxc-copy will be passed to the hook pro‐
gram starting at argument 4. The LXC_ROOTFS_MOUNT environment
variable gives the path under which the container's root filesys‐
tem is mounted. The configuration file pathname is stored in
LXC_CONFIG_FILE, the new container name in LXC_NAME, the old con‐
tainer name in LXC_SRC_NAME, and the path or device on which the
rootfs is located is in LXC_ROOTFS_PATH.
These options are common to most of lxc commands.
-?, -h, --help
Print a longer usage message than normal.
--usage
Give the usage message
-q, --quiet
mute on
-P, --lxcpath=PATH
Use an alternate container path. The default is
/var/lib/lxc.
-o, --logfile=FILE
Output to an alternate log FILE. The default is no log.
-l, --logpriority=LEVEL
Set log priority to LEVEL. The default log priority is ER‐
ROR. Possible values are : FATAL, ALERT, CRIT, WARN, ERROR,
NOTICE, INFO, DEBUG, TRACE.
Note that this option is setting the priority of the events
log in the alternate log file. It do not have effect on the
ERROR events log on stderr.
-n, --name=NAME
Use container identifier NAME. The container identifier
format is an alphanumeric string.
--rcfile=FILE
Specify the configuration file to configure the virtualiza‐
tion and isolation functionalities for the container.
This configuration file if present will be used even if
there is already a configuration file present in the previ‐
ously created container (via lxc-create).
--version
Show the version number.
lxc(7), lxc-create(1), lxc-copy(1), lxc-destroy(1), lxc-start(1),
lxc-stop(1), lxc-execute(1), lxc-console(1), lxc-monitor(1),
lxc-wait(1), lxc-cgroup(1), lxc-ls(1), lxc-info(1), lxc-freeze(1),
lxc-unfreeze(1), lxc-attach(1), lxc.conf(5)
This page is part of the lxc (Linux containers) project. Informa‐
tion about the project can be found at
⟨http://linuxcontainers.org/⟩. If you have a bug report for this
manual page, send it to lxc-devel@lists.linuxcontainers.org. This
page was obtained from the project's upstream Git repository
⟨https://github.com/lxc/lxc.git⟩ on 2025-08-11. (At that time,
the date of the most recent commit that was found in the
repository was 2025-07-29.) If you discover any rendering
problems in this HTML version of the page, or you believe there is
a better or more up-to-date source for the page, or you have
corrections or improvements to the information in this COLOPHON
(which is not part of the original manual page), send a mail to
man-pages@man7.org
2024-04-03 lxc-copy(1)
Pages that refer to this page: lxc-attach(1), lxc-autostart(1), lxc-cgroup(1), lxc-checkconfig(1), lxc-checkpoint(1), lxc-config(1), lxc-console(1), lxc-copy(1), lxc-create(1), lxc-destroy(1), lxc-device(1), lxc-execute(1), lxc-freeze(1), lxc-info(1), lxc-ls(1), lxc-monitor(1), lxc-snapshot(1), lxc-start(1), lxc-stop(1), lxc-top(1), lxc-unfreeze(1), lxc-unshare(1), lxc-update-config(1), lxc-usernsexec(1), lxc-wait(1), lxc.container.conf(5), lxc.system.conf(5), lxc(7)
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HTML rendering created 2025-09-06 by Michael Kerrisk, author of The Linux Programming Interface. For details of in-depth Linux/UNIX system programming training courses that I teach, look here. Hosting by jambit GmbH. |
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