lxc-copy(1) — Linux manual page

NAME | SYNOPSIS | DESCRIPTION | OPTIONS | COPY HOOK | COMMON OPTIONS | SEE ALSO | AUTHOR | 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-
       ephemeral) copies of existing containers.

       lxc-copy creates copies of existing containers. Copies can be
       complete clones of the original container. In this case the whole
       root filesystem of the container is simply copied to the new
       container. 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 includes btrfs, lvm (lvm devices do not support
       snapshots of snapshots.), overlay, and zfs.

       The copy's backing storage will be of the same type as the
       original container. overlay snapshots of directory backed
       containers are exempted from this rule.

       When the -e flag is specified an ephemeral snapshot of the
       original container is created and started. Ephemeral containers
       will have lxc.ephemeral = 1 set in their config file and will be
       destroyed on shutdown. When -e is used in combination with -D a
       non-ephemeral snapshot of the original container is created and
       started.  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 specified 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,overlay=/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
              container.  This may cause data corruption or data loss
              depending 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
              currently 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
              container 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
              container is created and started.

       -M, --keepmac
              When this option is specified the MAC address of the
              original container will be kept for the copy.

COPY HOOK         top

       If the container being copied has one or more lxc.hook.clone
       specified, then the specified hooks will be called for the new
       container. 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 program starting at argument 4. The LXC_ROOTFS_MOUNT
       environment variable gives the path under which the container's
       root filesystem is mounted. The configuration file pathname is
       stored in LXC_CONFIG_FILE, the new container name in LXC_NAME,
       the old container 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
              ERROR. 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
              virtualization 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
              previously 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)

AUTHOR         top

       Christian Brauner <christian.brauner@mailbox.org>

COLOPHON         top

       This page is part of the lxc (Linux containers) project.
       Information 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 2023-12-22.  (At that time,
       the date of the most recent commit that was found in the
       repository was 2023-12-18.)  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

                               2022-06-16                    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)