podman-save(1) General Commands Manual podman-save(1)

# [NAME](#NAME)

podman-save - Save image(s) to an archive or directory

# [SYNOPSIS](#SYNOPSIS)

**podman save** \[*options*] *name*\[:*tag*]

**podman image save** \[*options*] *name*\[:*tag*]

# [DESCRIPTION](#DESCRIPTION)

**podman save** saves an image to a local file or directory. **podman save** writes to STDOUT by default and can be redirected to a file using the **output** flag. The **quiet** flag suppresses the output when set. **podman save** saves parent layers of the image(s) and the image(s) can be loaded using **podman load**. To export the containers, use the **podman export**. Note: **:** is a restricted character and cannot be part of the file name.

**podman save** operates on *images*: the resulting archive (OCI or docker-archive) preserves the image's layers, history and tags, and is restored as the same image with **podman load**. This is different from **podman export**, which flattens a *container's* filesystem into a single-layer tarball with no image history. To capture a container's filesystem instead, see [**podman-export(1)**](/man/enterprise-packages/podman-doc-6.1/podman-export.1).

# [OPTIONS](#OPTIONS)

## **--compress**

Compress tarball image layers when pushing to a directory using the 'dir' transport. (default is same compression type, compressed or uncompressed, as source)

Note: This flag can only be set with **--format=docker-dir**.

## **--format**=*format*

An image format to produce, one of:

**Format** **Description** **docker-archive** A tar archive interoperable with **docker [load(1)](/man/enterprise-packages/podman-doc-6.1/load.1)** (the default) **oci-archive** A tar archive using the OCI Image Format **oci-dir** A directory using the OCI Image Format **docker-dir** **dir** transport (see [**containers-transports(5)**](/man/enterprise-packages/podman-doc-6.1/containers-transports.5)) with v2s2 manifest type

Note: **oci-dir** and **docker-dir** cannot be loaded with **podman load** on Podman remote clients (including macOS and Windows, excluding WSL2)

## **--help**, **-h**

Print usage statement

## **--multi-image-archive**, **-m**

Allow for creating archives with more than one image. Additional names are interpreted as images instead of tags. Only supported for **--format=docker-archive**. The default for this option can be modified via the **multi\_image\_archive="true"|"false"** flag in containers.conf.

## **--output**, **-o**=*file*

Write to a file, default is STDOUT

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

Suppress the output

## **--uncompressed**

Accept uncompressed layers when using one of the OCI formats.

# [EXAMPLES](#EXAMPLES)

Save image to a local file without displaying progress.

```
$ podman save --quiet -o alpine.tar alpine:2.6
```

Save image to stdout and redirect content via shell.

```
$ podman save alpine > alpine-all.tar
```

Save image in oci-archive format to the local file.

```
$ podman save -o oci-alpine.tar --format oci-archive alpine
```

Save image compressed in docker-dir format.

```
$ podman save --compress --format docker-dir -o alp-dir alpine
Getting image source signatures
Copying blob sha256:2fdfe1cd78c20d05774f0919be19bc1a3e4729bce219968e4188e7e0f1af679d


 1.97 MB / 1.97 MB [========================================================] 0s
Copying config sha256:501d1a8f0487e93128df34ea349795bc324d5e0c0d5112e08386a9dfaff620be


 584 B / 584 B [============================================================] 0s
Writing manifest to image destination
Storing signatures
```

# [SEE ALSO](#SEE_ALSO)

[**podman(1)**](/man/enterprise-packages/podman-doc-6.1/podman.1), [**podman-load(1)**](/man/enterprise-packages/podman-doc-6.1/podman-load.1), [**containers.conf(5)**](/man/enterprise-packages/podman-doc-6.1/containers.conf.5), [**containers-transports(5)**](/man/enterprise-packages/podman-doc-6.1/containers-transports.5)

# [HISTORY](#HISTORY)

July 2017, Originally compiled by Urvashi Mohnani umohnani@redhat.com ⟨mailto:umohnani@redhat.com⟩

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Document: podman-save(1) from podman-doc-6.1 6.1.4-r0 (Chainguard OS)
Source: https://github.com/containers/podman