lxc-copy(1) — Linux manual page

NAME | SYNOPSIS | DESCRIPTION | OPTIONS | COPY HOOK | COMMON OPTIONS | SEE ALSO | COLOPHON

lxc-copy(1)                                                   lxc-copy(1)

NAME         top

       lxc-copy - copy an existing container.

SYNOPSIS         top

       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}

DESCRIPTION         top

       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.

OPTIONS         top

       -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.

COPY HOOK         top

       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.

COMMON OPTIONS         top

       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.

SEE ALSO         top

       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)

COLOPHON         top

       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 2025-02-02.  (At that time,
       the date of the most recent commit that was found in the
       repository was 2025-01-24.)  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)