How to copy file from container in a pod in a specific namespace?

Question

Say I have, my-namespace -> my-pod -> my-container and I have a file located at my-container:/opt/tomcat/logs/catalina.2017-05-02.log. I have applied the below command to copy the file which isn't working,

kubectl cp my-namepace/my-pod:/opt/tomcat/logs/catalina.2017-05-02.log -c my-container . 

Note: I have the tar binary on my container

Error:

tar: Removing leading `/' from member names error: open .: is a directory 

Answer 1

What you are asking kubectl to do is copy the file catalina.2017-05-02.log to the current context, but the current context is a directory. The error is stating that you can not copy a file to have the name of a directory.

Try giving the copied version of the file a name:

kubectl cp my-namepace/my-pod:/opt/tomcat/logs/catalina.2017-05-02.log -c my-container ./catalina.2017-05-02.log.

Answer 2

this works for me:

$(kubectl exec <pod-name> [-c <container-name>] -it -- cat <file-path>) > <local-file>