Intended Failure: docker cp: lstat no such file or directory?

[Rich Moyse]

Executed the following Docker V1.8 command:

docker cp ./hello.txt <containerUUID>:/mydir/hi.txt

• File “hello.txt” exists in current host directory.

• Directory “/mydir” does not exist in container.

Received following message from docker cp:

Error response from daemon: lstat /var/lib/docker/vfs/dir/<containerUUID>/mydir: no such file or directory

Although I would expect this behavior for the linux cp command, the Docker documentation implies that docker cp should create the destination directory in the container. Here's the relevant behavioral description extracted from the docker cp documentation:

Assuming a path separator of /, a first argument of SRC_PATH and second argument of DST_PATH, the behavior is as follows:

• SRC_PATH specifies a file

  • DST_PATH does not exist

    • the file is saved to a file created at DST_PATH

The above verbiage “the file is saved to a file created at DST_PATH” given the context: “DST_PATH does not exist” implies the creation of the destination directory file path when creating the file.

Since docker cp acts like linux cp by failing to create the directory portion of DST_PATH, I'll assume that the documentation excerpt above suggests behavior beyond what was intended. Instead the described semantics of docker cp should, in this context, treat DST_PATH as either a base name devoid of directory references or a file path where all directory elements must exist.

If the assumption above correctly describes the desired intent, perhaps the original document excerpt should be replaced with the following:

• SRC_PATH specifies a file

  • DST_PATH does not exist and specifies only a base name

    • the file is saved to a file named DST_PATH

  • DST_PATH does not exist and all directory references exist

    • the file is saved to the file created at DST_PATH

  • DST_PATH does not exist and includes at least one nonexistent directory reference

    • Error condition all directory references specified by DST_PATH must exist

To summarize, I'd appreciate feedback concerning:

• Is docker cp designed to mimic linux cp failure mode when the SRC_PATH specifies only a file and DST_PATH includes at least one nonexistent directory reference?

• If docker cp intentionally mirrors the linux cp failure mode above, should the website documentation be altered to more clearly state docker cp's intended design?

• If documentation requires improvement, does the proposed alternate concisely provide the necessary clarity?

Thanks!

[Josh Hawn]

Hi Rich,

`docker cp` tries its best to be like the Linux `cp` command with the `-a, --archive` option.

The documentation should be updated to clarify that it will not create parent directories for the destination path. All parent directories of the destination path must exist.

- Josh

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[Rich Moyse]

Josh:

Thanks for your rapid reply and supportive position!

Rich. 

[Sebastiaan van Stijn]

Are you interested in opening a pull-request to update the documentation?

Relevant docs are located;

https://github.com/docker/docker/blob/master/docs/reference/commandline/cp.md

and

https://github.com/docker/docker/blob/master/man/docker-cp.1.md

- Sebastiaan

@thaJeztah on GitHub