moby/docs/sources/commandline/command/import.rst

:title: Import Command
:description: Create a new filesystem image from the contents of a tarball
:keywords: import, tarball, docker, url, documentation

==========================================================================
``import`` -- Create a new filesystem image from the contents of a tarball
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::

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

    Create a new filesystem image from the contents of a tarball

At this time, the URL must start with ``http`` and point to a single
file archive (.tar, .tar.gz, .tgz, .bzip, .tar.xz, .txz) containing a
root filesystem. If you would like to import from a local directory or
archive, you can use the ``-`` parameter to take the data from
standard in.

Examples
--------

Import from a remote location
.............................

``$ sudo docker import http://example.com/exampleimage.tgz exampleimagerepo``

Import from a local file
........................

Import to docker via pipe and standard in

``$ cat exampleimage.tgz | sudo docker import - exampleimagelocal``

Import from a local directory
.............................

``$ sudo tar -c . | docker import - 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 sudo) when you tar, then the ownerships
might not get preserved.