How to copy multiple files in one layer using a Dockerfile?

dockerfile
kazhuravlev picture kazhuravlev · May 15, 2015 · Viewed 193.9k times · Source

The following Dockerfile contains four COPY layers:

COPY README.md ./
COPY package.json ./
COPY gulpfile.js ./
COPY __BUILD_NUMBER ./

How to copy these files using one layer instead? The following was tried:

COPY [
    "__BUILD_NUMBER ./",
    "README.md ./",
    "gulpfile ./",
    "another_file ./",
]

Answer

Nathaniel Waisbrot picture Nathaniel Waisbrot · May 19, 2015 
COPY README.md package.json gulpfile.js __BUILD_NUMBER ./

or

COPY ["__BUILD_NUMBER", "README.md", "gulpfile", "another_file", "./"]

You can also use wildcard characters in the sourcefile specification. See the docs for a little more detail.

Directories are special! If you write

COPY dir1 dir2 ./

that actually works like

COPY dir1/* dir2/* ./

If you want to copy multiple directories (not their contents) under a destination directory in a single command, you'll need to set up the build context so that your source directories are under a common parent and then COPY that parent.

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