What does "copy . ." mean?

[whitz]

What does “copy . .” mean? Thank you.

[terpz (Martin Terp)]

The COPY instruction copies new files or directories from <src> and adds them to the filesystem of the container at the path <dest>

Also

The <dest> is an absolute path, or a path relative to WORKDIR

| Docker Documentation

[jayjani008]

@terpz “COPY . .” Please explain me!
What is happening in Line 11? Aren’t SRC and DEST the same?
Capture|690x327

[terpz (Martin Terp)]

Hi @jayjani008

It means the same thing yes, the dot is “where i am now”
So it will copy everything from the same place as the dockerfile, to “where i am now” in the container.

The “where i am now” in the image/container is defined by https://docs.docker.com/engine/reference/builder/#workdir

So if you set:
WORKDIR /tmp
and do
COPY . .

It will copy everything in the current folder, to /tmp

Hope that makes sense