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
       complete 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
       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 speci‐
       fied 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,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 current‐
              ly 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 con‐
              tainer 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 orig‐
              inal 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 en‐
       vironment 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 ER‐
              ROR. Possible values are : FATAL, ALERT, CRIT, WARN, ER‐
              ROR, 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 ef‐
              fect 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 virtual‐
              ization 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 pre‐
              viously 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.  Infor‐
       mation about the project can be found at 
       ⟨http://linuxcontainers.org/⟩.  If you have a bug report for this
       manual page, send it to [email protected].
       This page was obtained from the project's upstream Git repository
       ⟨https://github.com/lxc/lxc.git⟩ on 2024-06-14.  (At that time,
       the date of the most recent commit that was found in the
       repository was 2024-06-05.)  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
       [email protected]

                               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)