buildah-add(1) General Commands Manual buildah-add(1)

# [NAME](#NAME)

buildah-add - Add the contents of a file, URL, or a directory to a container.

# [SYNOPSIS](#SYNOPSIS)

**buildah add** \[*options*] *container* *src* \[\[*src* ...] *dest*]

# [DESCRIPTION](#DESCRIPTION)

Adds the contents of a file, URL, or a directory to a container's working directory or a specified location in the container. If a local source file appears to be an archive, its contents are extracted and added instead of the archive file itself. If a local directory is specified as a source, its *contents* are copied to the destination.

# [OPTIONS](#OPTIONS)

**--add-history**

Add an entry to the history which will note the digest of the added content. Defaults to false.

Note: You can also override the default value of --add-history by setting the BUILDAH\_HISTORY environment variable. **export BUILDAH\_HISTORY=true**

**--allow-empty-wildcard**

If set to true, don't return an error if globbing matches nothing. Only meaningful when **--allow-wildcard** is true. Defaults to false.

**--allow-wildcard**

Allow glob patterns in source paths. When set to false, source paths containing wildcard characters (\*, ?, [) are rejected with an error. Defaults to true.

**--cert-dir** *path*

Use certificates at *path* (\*.crt, \*.cert, \*.key) when connecting to registries for pulling images named with the **--from** flag, and when connecting to HTTPS servers when fetching sources from locations specified with HTTPS URLs. The default certificates directory is */etc/containers/certs.d*.

**--checksum** *checksum*

Checksum the source content. For HTTP sources, the value of *checksum* must be a standard container digest string. For Git sources, the value of *checksum* must be a hex encoded Git commit SHA; a prefix of the full commit ID is sufficient, but must be at least 4 characters, matching Git's own minimum abbreviation length.

**--chmod** *permissions*

Sets the access permissions of the destination content. Accepts numerical or symbolic format.

**--chown** *owner*:*group*

Sets the user and group ownership of the destination content.

**--contextdir** *directory*

Build context directory. Specifying a context directory causes Buildah to chroot into that context directory. This means copying files pointed at by symbolic links outside of the chroot will fail.

**--exclude** *pattern*

Exclude copying files matching the specified pattern. The option can be specified multiple times. Patterns are matched against each file's path relative to the context directory (or, with **--from**, relative to the source container or image root). See [containerignore(5)](/man/enterprise-packages/buildah/containerignore.5) for supported formats.

**--from** *containerOrImage*

Use the root directory of the specified working container or image as the root directory when resolving absolute source paths and the path of the context directory. If an image needs to be pulled, options recognized by **buildah pull** can be used.

**--ignorefile** *file*

Path to an alternative .containerignore (.dockerignore) file. Requires --contextdir be specified.

**--include** *pattern*

Only copy files matching the specified pattern. The option can be specified multiple times. Patterns are matched against each file's path relative to the context directory being copied. If a path matches both an **--include** and an **--exclude** pattern, it will be excluded. See [containerignore(5)](/man/enterprise-packages/buildah/containerignore.5) for supported formats.

**--keep-git-dir**

When the source is a remote git repository, keep the cloned **.git** directory instead of stripping it out. Only meaningful for git sources. Defaults to false.

**--link**

Create an independent image layer for the added files instead of modifying the working container's filesystem. If **buildah run** creates a file and **buildah add --link** adds a file to the same path, the file from **buildah add --link** will be present in the committed image. The --link layer is applied after all container filesystem changes at commit time.

**--no-follow-symlinks**

When a local source is a symbolic link, copy the link as a symbolic link instead of dereferencing the link and copying the contents of the target.

**--quiet**, **-q**

Refrain from printing a digest of the added content.

**--required-path** *path*

Require that the specific path is present among the files matched by **--include**. This option can be specified multiple times. Must be used with **--include**; using **--required-path** without **--include** will fail.

**--retry** *attempts*

Number of times to retry in case of failure when pulling images from registries or retrieving content from HTTPS URLs.

Defaults to **3**.

**--retry-delay** *duration*

Duration of delay between retry attempts in case of failure when pulling images from registries or retrieving content from HTTPS URLs.

Defaults to **2s**.

**--timestamp** *seconds*

Set the timestamp ("mtime") for added content to exactly this number of seconds since the epoch (Unix time 0, i.e., 00:00:00 UTC on 1 January 1970) to help allow for deterministic builds.

The destination directory into which the content is being copied will most likely reflect the time at which the content was added to it.

**--tls-verify** *bool-value*

Require verification of certificates when retrieving sources from HTTPS locations, or when pulling images referred to with the **--from*** flag (defaults to true). TLS verification cannot be used when talking to an insecure registry.

# [EXAMPLE](#EXAMPLE)

buildah add containerID '/myapp/app.conf' '/myapp/app.conf'

buildah add --chown myuser:mygroup containerID '/myapp/app.conf' '/myapp/app.conf'

buildah add --chmod 660 containerID '/myapp/app.conf' '/myapp/app.conf'

buildah add containerID '/home/myuser/myproject.go'

buildah add containerID '/home/myuser/myfiles.tar' '/tmp'

buildah add containerID '/tmp/workingdir' '/tmp/workingdir'

buildah add containerID 'https://github.com/containers/buildah/blob/main/README.md' '/tmp'

buildah add containerID 'passwd' 'certs.d' /etc

buildah add containerID '/tmp/myfiles-\*' '/dest/'

buildah add --allow-empty-wildcard=true containerID '/tmp/logs-\*' '/dest/'

# [FILES](#FILES)

## [.containerignore or .dockerignore](#.containerignore_or_.dockerignore)

If a .containerignore or .dockerignore file exists in the context directory, **buildah add** reads its contents. If both exist, then .containerignore is used.

When the **--ignorefile** option is specified Buildah reads it and uses it to decide which content to exclude when copying content into the working container.

Users can specify a series of Unix shell glob patterns in an ignore file to identify files/directories to exclude.

Buildah supports a special wildcard string **\*\*** which matches any number of directories (including zero). For example, \**/*.go will exclude all files that end with .go that are found in all directories.

Example .containerignore/.dockerignore file:

```
# here are files we want to exclude
*/*.c
**/output*
src
```

**\*/\*.c** Excludes files and directories whose names end with .c in any top level subdirectory. For example, the source file include/rootless.c.

**\*\*/output\*** Excludes files and directories starting with **output** from any directory.

**src** Excludes files named src and the directory src as well as any content in it.

Lines starting with ! (exclamation mark) can be used to make exceptions to exclusions. The following is an example .containerignore file that uses this mechanism:

```
*.doc
!Help.doc
```

Exclude all doc files except Help.doc when copying content into the container.

This functionality is compatible with the handling of .containerignore files described here:

https://github.com/containers/common/blob/main/docs/containerignore.5.md

# [SEE ALSO](#SEE_ALSO)

[buildah(1)](/man/enterprise-packages/buildah/buildah.1), [containerignore(5)](/man/enterprise-packages/buildah/containerignore.5)

April 2021 buildah

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Document: buildah-add(1) from buildah 1.46.0-r2 (Chainguard OS)
Source: https://github.com/containers/buildah