Recursively copy files using docker cp

Does docker truly only support one file-at-a-time copying to/from the host?

The only options displayed for docker cp are:

 $docker cp --help
Usage: docker cp [OPTIONS] CONTAINER:SRC_PATH DEST_PATH|- docker cp [OPTIONS] SRC_PATH|- CONTAINER:DEST_PATH
Copy files/folders between a container and the local filesystem
Options: -a, --archive Archive mode (copy all uid/gid information) -L, --follow-link Always follow symbol link in SRC_PATH

In addition the jira shows that wildcards are not presently supported .. So is the only option here to create an archive and cp / untar that ?

1 Answer

According to the docker documentation:

The cp command behaves like the Unix cp -a command in that directories are copied recursively with permissions preserved if possible.

This means that docker cp copy files recursively by default.