Copy Files To Container

If you would like to copy a file to a container, you can do it using the CopyFileToContainer method...

ctx := context.Background()

nginxC, err := GenericContainer(ctx, GenericContainerRequest{
        ContainerRequest: ContainerRequest{
            Image:        "nginx:1.17.6",
            ExposedPorts: []string{"80/tcp"},
            WaitingFor:   wait.ForListeningPort("80/tcp"),
        },
        Started: true,
    })

nginxC.CopyFileToContainer(ctx, "./testresources/hello.sh", "/hello_copy.sh", 700)

Or you can add a list of files in ContainerRequest's struct, which can be copied before the container started:

ctx := context.Background()

nginxC, err := GenericContainer(ctx, GenericContainerRequest{
        ContainerRequest: ContainerRequest{
            Image:        "nginx:1.17.6",
            ExposedPorts: []string{"80/tcp"},
            WaitingFor:   wait.ForListeningPort("80/tcp"),
            Files: []ContainerFile{
                {
                    HostFilePath:      "./testresources/hello.sh",
                    ContainerFilePath: "/copies-hello.sh",
                    FileMode:          700,
                },
            },
        },
        Started: false,
    })

Copy Directories To Container

It's also possible to copy an entire directory to a container, and that can happen before and/or after the container gets into the "Running" state. As an example, you could need to bulk-copy a set of files, such as a configuration directory that does not exist in the underlying Docker image.

It's important to notice that, when copying the directory to the container, the container path must exist in the Docker image. And this is a strong requirement for files to be copied before the container is started, as we cannot create the full path at that time.

Once we understood that, there are two ways to copy directories to a container. The first one is using the existing CopyFileToContainer method, which will internally check if the host path is a directory, internally calling the new CopyDirToContainer method if needed:

ctx := context.Background()

// copy a directory before the container is started, using Files field
nginxC, err := GenericContainer(ctx, GenericContainerRequest{
        ContainerRequest: ContainerRequest{
            Image:        "nginx:1.17.6",
            ExposedPorts: []string{"80/tcp"},
            WaitingFor:   wait.ForListeningPort("80/tcp"),
            Files: []ContainerFile{
                {
                    HostFilePath:      "./testresources",    // a directory
                    ContainerFilePath: "/tmp/testresources", // important! its parent already exists
                    FileMode:          700,
                },
            },
        },
        Started: true,
    })
if err != nil {
    // handle error
}

// as the container is started, we can create the directory first
_, _, err = nginxC.Exec(ctx, []string{"mkdir", "-p", "/usr/lib/my-software/config"})
// because the container path is a directory, it will use the copy dir method as fallback
err = nginxC.CopyFileToContainer(ctx, "./files", "/usr/lib/my-software/config/files", 700)
if err != nil {
    // handle error
}

And the second way is using the CopyDirToContainer method which, as you probably know, needs the existence of the parent directory where to copy the directory:

ctx := context.Background()

// copy a directory before the container is started, using Files field
nginxC, err := GenericContainer(ctx, GenericContainerRequest{
        ContainerRequest: ContainerRequest{
            Image:        "nginx:1.17.6",
            ExposedPorts: []string{"80/tcp"},
            WaitingFor:   wait.ForListeningPort("80/tcp"),
            Files: []ContainerFile{
                {
                    HostFilePath:      "./testresources",    // a directory
                    ContainerFilePath: "/tmp/testresources", // important! its parent already exists
                    FileMode:          700,
                },
            },
        },
        Started: true,
    })
if err != nil {
    // handle error
}

// as the container is started, we can create the directory first
_, _, err = nginxC.Exec(ctx, []string{"mkdir", "-p", "/usr/lib/my-software/config"})
err = nginxC.CopyDirToContainer(ctx, "./plugins", "/usr/lib/my-software/config/plugins", 700)
if err != nil {
    // handle error
}