Is there a better way to copy files and folders to a docker container?

Question

This is what I came up with but it seems clunky to me. Is there a way to streamline the COPY command? Note that not all the folders need to copied.

I did check out Docker's documentation regarding, and it seems like this may be the only way? I was just checking if anyone else had a brighter idea. Thanks!

# Copy files to container
COPY src/ /opt/build_area/src/
COPY public/  /opt/build_area/public/
COPY app.js doc* .en* tag-push.sh react-0.3.1.tgz package.json .npmrc /opt/build_area/

This is the folder structure:

$ tree -L 1
.
├── .dockerignore
├── .env
├── .env.development
├── .git/
├── .gitignore
├── .npmrc
├── Dockerfile
├── Dockerfile-build
├── README.md
├── app.js
├── azure-pipelines-static.yml
├── azure-pipelines.yml
├── docker/
├── docker-compose-run.yml
├── docker-compose.yml
├── node_modules/
├── package-lock.json
├── package.json
├── public/
├── react-0.3.1.tgz
├── src/
├── tag-push.sh
└── test-azure-pipelines-static.yml

5 directories, 18 files

check this possible duplicate: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/30256386/how-to-copy-multiple-files-in-one-layer-using-a-dockerfile — Taha Naqvi, Jan 11 '22 at 15:11
The other shortcut I'd use here is to set `WORKDIR /opt/build_area`, and then `COPY src/ ./src/`, `COPY files ./` relative to that `WORKDIR` to avoid repeating the directory name. — David Maze, Jan 11 '22 at 15:17
Does this answer your question? [How to copy multiple files in one layer using a Dockerfile?](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/30256386/how-to-copy-multiple-files-in-one-layer-using-a-dockerfile) — Taha Naqvi, Jan 12 '22 at 12:50

score 1 · Answer 1 · answered Jan 11 '22 at 16:40

This is what I came up with helpful comments from @TahaNaqvi and @DavidMaze. This is much easier to read.

# Copy files to container
WORKDIR /opt/build_area/

COPY src/ ./src/
COPY public/  ./public/

COPY app.js           \
     .npmrc           \
     doc* .en*        \
     tag-push.sh      \
     package.json     \
     react-0.3.1.tgz  /opt/build_area/

score 1 · Answer 2 · answered Jan 11 '22 at 17:55

1

dockerignore file can be used just like gitignore file. You can specify files folders to be ignored which will not be copied by COPY command. More doc here - https://docs.docker.com/engine/reference/builder/#dockerignore-file

answered Jan 11 '22 at 17:55

Santosh Karanam

1,077
11
23

Mind. Blown. And then I can just do a `COPY * `. I'll put that in my pocket for later! – bennettnw2 Jan 11 '22 at 19:08

Is there a better way to copy files and folders to a docker container?

2 Answers2