DockerCLI/docs/reference/commandline/import.md

import

Usage: docker import file|URL|- [REPOSITORY[:TAG]]

Create an empty filesystem image and import the contents of the
tarball (.tar, .tar.gz, .tgz, .bzip, .tar.xz, .txz) into it, then
optionally tag it.

  -c, --change=[]     Apply specified Dockerfile instructions while importing the image
  --help              Print usage
  -m, --message=      Set commit message for imported image

You can specify a URL or - (dash) to take data directly from STDIN. The URL can point to an archive (.tar, .tar.gz, .tgz, .bzip, .tar.xz, or .txz) containing a filesystem or to an individual file on the Docker host. If you specify an archive, Docker untars it in the container relative to the / (root). If you specify an individual file, you must specify the full path within the host. To import from a remote location, specify a URI that begins with the http:// or https:// protocol.

The --change option will apply Dockerfile instructions to the image that is created. Supported Dockerfile instructions: CMD|ENTRYPOINT|ENV|EXPOSE|ONBUILD|USER|VOLUME|WORKDIR

Examples

Import from a remote location:

This will create a new untagged image.

$ docker import http://example.com/exampleimage.tgz

Import from a local file:

Import to docker via pipe and STDIN.

$ cat exampleimage.tgz | docker import - exampleimagelocal:new

Import with a commit message.

$ cat exampleimage.tgz | docker import --message "New image imported from tarball" - exampleimagelocal:new

Import to docker from a local archive.

$ docker import /path/to/exampleimage.tgz

Import from a local directory:

$ sudo tar -c . | docker import - exampleimagedir

Import from a local directory with new configurations:

$ sudo tar -c . | docker import --change "ENV DEBUG true" - exampleimagedir

Note the sudo in this example – you must preserve the ownership of the files (especially root ownership) during the archiving with tar. If you are not root (or the sudo command) when you tar, then the ownerships might not get preserved.