Copy Files From Pod in Kubernetes

The short answer

To copy a file or a directory from a Pod to a specified location on your local machine, you can use the kubectl cp command as follows:

$ kubectl cp [<namespace>/]<pod>:<source> <destination>

Where:

• namespace is an optional namespace name.
• pod is the name of the Pod you want to copy files from.
• source is the absolute path to the file or directory you want to copy within the specified Pod.
• destination is the relative or absolute path to the directory you want to copy the files into.

For example, this command will copy the nginx.conf file from the nginx Pod into the local config directory and renaming it nginx\_tmp.conf:

$ kubectl cp nginx:/etc/nginx/nginx.conf /home/johndoe/config/nginx_tmp.conf

And this command will copy the logs directory from the node Pod within the website namespace into the local /tmp/logs directory:

$ kubectl cp website/node:/app/logs /tmp/logs

Easily retrieve these commands using Warp's AI Command Suggestions feature

If you’re using Warp as your terminal, you can easily retrieve this command using the Warp AI Command Suggestions feature:

Entering kubernetes copy from pod in the AI Command Suggestions will prompt a kubectl command that can then quickly be inserted into your shell by doing CMD+ENTER.