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`docker cp -a` docs incorrect

Open Beginner friendly
#6,870 2 comments 0 reactions 0 assignees View on GitHub

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Assessment

Difficulty
2/5
Estimated time
1-3 hours
Newbie friendliness
63/100
Issue type
Documentation
Clarity
Mostly clear
Activity status
Quiet
Tech stack
docker
Domain
cli, documentation

Research direction

Start at the Docker CLI reference page for docker cp, using the -a option description and the issue's observed commands as the entry point. Verify the ownership behavior described there, then update the documentation so the option's behavior is accurate and confirm the revised wording is clear.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Description

kind/bug status/0-triage
Description
Is this a docs issue?
  • My issue is about the documentation content or website
Type of issue

Information is incorrect

Description

Docs for docker cp -a claim that -a will "Archive mode (copy all uid/gid information)"

My testing shows that this is incorrect.

It appears that docker cp . container-name:/ without the -a flag will preserve ownership of the copied files. That is, a file owned by user ID 1234 on the host will be created with user ID 1234 within the container.

Adding the -a flag will instead change the ownership of copied files to match the --user of the container.

Location

https://docs.docker.com/engine/reference/commandline/cp/

Suggestion

No response

Reproduce
Expected behavior

No response

docker version
-
docker info
-
Additional Info

Re-posted here per this comment on the original docker/docs issue: https://github.com/docker/docs/issues/17533#issuecomment-4091233314

Dominant language
Go
Stars
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Forks
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Avg merge
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Merged PRs (30d)
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