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Docker: How to extract the Docker image into
local system
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Asked 3 years, 5 months ago
Active 4 months ago
Viewed 28k times
12
5
I want to extract the Docker image (from Ubuntu server) into my local system (Linux machine).
I run the following command
docker exec -it containername_or_ID /bin/bash
I am able to view image by using this command, but I am unable to get this image into my local
system.
linuxdocker
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edited Dec 11 2020 at 0:53
Promise Preston
14.3k99 gold badges8181 silver badges102102 bronze badges
asked Sep 11 2018 at 9:18
arun kamboj
96533 gold badges1616 silver badges4242 bronze badges
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If you want to get the image on your other machine and don't want to build it again then the ideal way is push the
docker image created on your Ubuntu server to docker hub repository. Then you can simply do the docker pull to
pull the image at any machine.
– Mahattam
Sep 11 2018 at 11:13
Add a comment
3 Answers
ActiveOldestScore
22
It depends though on what you're actually asking for. You are talking about extracting the image, but
you're referring to an existing container. While jbrownwrld's answer is right in your context, if you
want to extract an image, you can use docker save for that. Identify the image using:
docker image ls
mariadb
10.3-bionic
92744546933d
4 days ago
343MB
Then output the tar file (default format):
docker save mariadb:10.3-bionic --output mariadb.tar
mkdir mariadb && mv mariadb.tar mariadb && cd mariadb && tar xvf mariadb.tar
There are lots of files and folders being extracted, so you had better use another directory. The
folders generally correspond to the image layers.
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edited Sep 21 2019 at 0:37
answered Sep 17 2019 at 13:21
Lethargos
41233 silver badges1010 bronze badges
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Using your approach I've found then inside the extracted image there's a layer.tar directory which can then be
extracted again and then I got the output similar to docker export.
– Juraj Martinka
Mar 18 2020 at 8:58
1
@JurajMartinka, but you don't need to create a container to extract, you can achieve this on plain image.
– stck
Nov 16 2020 at 7:31
1
The issue with docker save is that the saved tar has all layers as separate additional layer.tar files inside the tar.
Using docker export gives you all of them combined together.
– Mitar
Aug 22 2021 at 12:05
Well, yeah, it depends on what you're looking for. That could be helpful in certain situations.
– Lethargos
Aug 22 2021 at 16:36
Add a comment
21
You can use docker's export tool for this. docker export will output the contents of a container into a .tar
file;
$ docker export container_name > output.tar
See the docker docs for more
information: https://docs.docker.com/engine/reference/commandline/export/
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answered Sep 11 2018 at 9:24
jbrownwrld
34111 silver badge55 bronze badges
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3
In order to extract image contents without dealing with many layers, a container should be created
first. If docker run was already run, use that container, otherwise create a stopped container with docker
create. Then use docker export or docker cp.
id=$(docker create image:tag)
docker export $id -o image.tar
docker rm $id
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answered Oct 6 2021 at 16:46
Konstantin Pelepelin
1,00011 gold badge1111 silver badges2525 bronze badges
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