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        <article role="main" id="furo-main-content">
          <section id="how-to-access-files-in-an-instance">
<span id="instances-access-files"></span><h1>How to access files in an instance<a class="headerlink" href="#how-to-access-files-in-an-instance" title="Link to this heading">¶</a></h1>
<p>You can manage files inside an instance using the LXD client or the API without needing to access the instance through the network.
Files can be individually edited or deleted, pushed from or pulled to the local machine.
Alternatively, if you’re using the LXD client, you can mount the instance’s file system onto the local machine.</p>
<div class="admonition note">
<p class="admonition-title">Note</p>
<p>The UI does not currently support accessing files in an instance.</p>
</div>
<p>For containers, these file operations always work and are handled directly by LXD.
For virtual machines, the <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">lxd-agent</span></code> process must be running inside of the virtual machine for them to work.</p>
<section id="edit-instance-files">
<h2>Edit instance files<a class="headerlink" href="#edit-instance-files" title="Link to this heading">¶</a></h2>
<div class="sphinx-tabs docutils container">
<div aria-label="Tabbed content" class="closeable" role="tablist"><button aria-controls="panel-0-Q0xJ" aria-selected="true" class="sphinx-tabs-tab group-tab" id="tab-0-Q0xJ" name="Q0xJ" role="tab" tabindex="0">CLI</button><button aria-controls="panel-0-QVBJ" aria-selected="false" class="sphinx-tabs-tab group-tab" id="tab-0-QVBJ" name="QVBJ" role="tab" tabindex="-1">API</button></div><div aria-labelledby="tab-0-Q0xJ" class="sphinx-tabs-panel group-tab" id="panel-0-Q0xJ" name="Q0xJ" role="tabpanel" tabindex="0"><p>To edit an instance file from your local machine, enter the following command:</p>
<div class="highlight-none notranslate"><div class="highlight"><pre><span></span>lxc file edit &lt;instance_name&gt;/&lt;path_to_file&gt;
</pre></div>
</div>
<p>For example, to edit the <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">/etc/hosts</span></code> file in the instance, enter the following command:</p>
<div class="highlight-none notranslate"><div class="highlight"><pre><span></span>lxc file edit my-instance/etc/hosts
</pre></div>
</div>
<div class="admonition note">
<p class="admonition-title">Note</p>
<p>The file must already exist on the instance.
You cannot use the <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">edit</span></code> command to create a file on the instance.</p>
</div>
</div><div aria-labelledby="tab-0-QVBJ" class="sphinx-tabs-panel group-tab" hidden="true" id="panel-0-QVBJ" name="QVBJ" role="tabpanel" tabindex="0"><p>There is no API endpoint that lets you edit files directly on an instance.
Instead, you need to <a class="reference internal" href="#instances-access-files-pull"><span class="std std-ref">pull the content of the file from the instance</span></a>, edit it, and then <a class="reference internal" href="#instances-access-files-push"><span class="std std-ref">push the modified content back to the instance</span></a>.</p>
</div></div>
</section>
<section id="delete-files-from-the-instance">
<h2>Delete files from the instance<a class="headerlink" href="#delete-files-from-the-instance" title="Link to this heading">¶</a></h2>
<div class="sphinx-tabs docutils container">
<div aria-label="Tabbed content" class="closeable" role="tablist"><button aria-controls="panel-1-Q0xJ" aria-selected="true" class="sphinx-tabs-tab group-tab" id="tab-1-Q0xJ" name="Q0xJ" role="tab" tabindex="0">CLI</button><button aria-controls="panel-1-QVBJ" aria-selected="false" class="sphinx-tabs-tab group-tab" id="tab-1-QVBJ" name="QVBJ" role="tab" tabindex="-1">API</button></div><div aria-labelledby="tab-1-Q0xJ" class="sphinx-tabs-panel group-tab" id="panel-1-Q0xJ" name="Q0xJ" role="tabpanel" tabindex="0"><p>To delete a file from your instance, enter the following command:</p>
<div class="highlight-none notranslate"><div class="highlight"><pre><span></span>lxc file delete &lt;instance_name&gt;/&lt;path_to_file&gt;
</pre></div>
</div>
</div><div aria-labelledby="tab-1-QVBJ" class="sphinx-tabs-panel group-tab" hidden="true" id="panel-1-QVBJ" name="QVBJ" role="tabpanel" tabindex="0"><p>Send the following DELETE request to delete a file from your instance:</p>
<div class="highlight-none notranslate"><div class="highlight"><pre><span></span>lxc query --request DELETE /1.0/instances/&lt;instance_name&gt;/files?path=&lt;path_to_file&gt;
</pre></div>
</div>
<p>See <a class="reference external" href="/api/#/instances/instance_files_delete"><code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">DELETE</span> <span class="pre">/1.0/instances/{name}/files</span></code></a> for more information.</p>
</div></div>
</section>
<section id="pull-files-from-the-instance-to-the-local-machine">
<span id="instances-access-files-pull"></span><h2>Pull files from the instance to the local machine<a class="headerlink" href="#pull-files-from-the-instance-to-the-local-machine" title="Link to this heading">¶</a></h2>
<div class="sphinx-tabs docutils container">
<div aria-label="Tabbed content" class="closeable" role="tablist"><button aria-controls="panel-2-Q0xJ" aria-selected="true" class="sphinx-tabs-tab group-tab" id="tab-2-Q0xJ" name="Q0xJ" role="tab" tabindex="0">CLI</button><button aria-controls="panel-2-QVBJ" aria-selected="false" class="sphinx-tabs-tab group-tab" id="tab-2-QVBJ" name="QVBJ" role="tab" tabindex="-1">API</button></div><div aria-labelledby="tab-2-Q0xJ" class="sphinx-tabs-panel group-tab" id="panel-2-Q0xJ" name="Q0xJ" role="tabpanel" tabindex="0"><p>To pull a file from your instance to your local machine, enter the following command:</p>
<div class="highlight-none notranslate"><div class="highlight"><pre><span></span>lxc file pull &lt;instance_name&gt;/&lt;path_to_file&gt; &lt;local_file_path&gt;
</pre></div>
</div>
<p>For example, to pull the <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">/etc/hosts</span></code> file to the current directory, enter the following command:</p>
<div class="highlight-none notranslate"><div class="highlight"><pre><span></span>lxc file pull my-instance/etc/hosts .
</pre></div>
</div>
<p>Instead of pulling the instance file into a file on the local system, you can also pull it to stdout and pipe it to stdin of another command.
This can be useful, for example, to check a log file:</p>
<div class="highlight-none notranslate"><div class="highlight"><pre><span></span>lxc file pull my-instance/var/log/syslog - | less
</pre></div>
</div>
<p>To pull a directory with all contents, enter the following command:</p>
<div class="highlight-none notranslate"><div class="highlight"><pre><span></span>lxc file pull -r &lt;instance_name&gt;/&lt;path_to_directory&gt; &lt;local_location&gt;
</pre></div>
</div>
</div><div aria-labelledby="tab-2-QVBJ" class="sphinx-tabs-panel group-tab" hidden="true" id="panel-2-QVBJ" name="QVBJ" role="tabpanel" tabindex="0"><p>Send the following request to pull the contents of a file from your instance to your local machine:</p>
<div class="highlight-none notranslate"><div class="highlight"><pre><span></span>lxc query --request GET /1.0/instances/&lt;instance_name&gt;/files?path=&lt;path_to_file&gt;
</pre></div>
</div>
<p>You can then write the contents to a local file, or pipe them to stdin of another command.</p>
<p>For example, to pull the contents of the <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">/etc/hosts</span></code> file and write them to a <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">my-instance-hosts</span></code> file in the current directory, enter the following command:</p>
<div class="highlight-none notranslate"><div class="highlight"><pre><span></span>lxc query --request GET /1.0/instances/my-instance/files?path=/etc/hosts &gt; my-instance-hosts
</pre></div>
</div>
<p>To examine a log file, enter the following command:</p>
<div class="highlight-none notranslate"><div class="highlight"><pre><span></span>lxc query --request GET /1.0/instances/&lt;instance_name&gt;/files?path=&lt;file_path&gt; | less
</pre></div>
</div>
<p>To pull the contents of a directory, send the following request:</p>
<div class="highlight-none notranslate"><div class="highlight"><pre><span></span>lxc query --request GET /1.0/instances/&lt;instance_name&gt;/files?path=&lt;path_to_directory&gt;
</pre></div>
</div>
<p>This request returns a list of files in the directory, and you can then pull the contents of each file.</p>
<p>See <a class="reference external" href="/api/#/instances/instance_files_get"><code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">GET</span> <span class="pre">/1.0/instances/{name}/files</span></code></a> for more information.</p>
</div></div>
</section>
<section id="push-files-from-the-local-machine-to-the-instance">
<span id="instances-access-files-push"></span><h2>Push files from the local machine to the instance<a class="headerlink" href="#push-files-from-the-local-machine-to-the-instance" title="Link to this heading">¶</a></h2>
<div class="sphinx-tabs docutils container">
<div aria-label="Tabbed content" class="closeable" role="tablist"><button aria-controls="panel-3-Q0xJ" aria-selected="true" class="sphinx-tabs-tab group-tab" id="tab-3-Q0xJ" name="Q0xJ" role="tab" tabindex="0">CLI</button><button aria-controls="panel-3-QVBJ" aria-selected="false" class="sphinx-tabs-tab group-tab" id="tab-3-QVBJ" name="QVBJ" role="tab" tabindex="-1">API</button></div><div aria-labelledby="tab-3-Q0xJ" class="sphinx-tabs-panel group-tab" id="panel-3-Q0xJ" name="Q0xJ" role="tabpanel" tabindex="0"><p>To push a file from your local machine to your instance, enter the following command:</p>
<div class="highlight-none notranslate"><div class="highlight"><pre><span></span>lxc file push &lt;local_file_path&gt; &lt;instance_name&gt;/&lt;path_to_file&gt;
</pre></div>
</div>
<p>You can specify the file permissions by adding the <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">--gid</span></code>, <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">--uid</span></code>, and <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">--mode</span></code> flags.</p>
<p>To push a directory with all contents, enter the following command:</p>
<div class="highlight-none notranslate"><div class="highlight"><pre><span></span>lxc file push -r &lt;local_location&gt; &lt;instance_name&gt;/&lt;path_to_directory&gt;
</pre></div>
</div>
</div><div aria-labelledby="tab-3-QVBJ" class="sphinx-tabs-panel group-tab" hidden="true" id="panel-3-QVBJ" name="QVBJ" role="tabpanel" tabindex="0"><p>Send the following request to write content to a file on your instance:</p>
<div class="highlight-none notranslate"><div class="highlight"><pre><span></span>lxc query --request POST /1.0/instances/&lt;instance_name&gt;/files?path=&lt;path_to_file&gt; --data &lt;content&gt;
</pre></div>
</div>
<p>See <a class="reference external" href="/api/#/instances/instance_files_post"><code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">POST</span> <span class="pre">/1.0/instances/{name}/files</span></code></a> for more information.</p>
<p>To push content directly from a file, you must use a tool that can send raw data from a file, which <a class="reference internal" href="../../reference/manpages/lxc/query/#lxc-query-md"><span class="std std-ref"><code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">lxc</span> <span class="pre">query</span></code></span></a> does not support.
For example, with curl:</p>
<div class="highlight-none notranslate"><div class="highlight"><pre><span></span>curl -X POST -H &quot;Content-Type: application/octet-stream&quot; --data-binary @&lt;local_file_path&gt; \
--unix-socket /var/snap/lxd/common/lxd/unix.socket \
lxd/1.0/instances/&lt;instance_name&gt;/files?path=&lt;path_to_file&gt;
</pre></div>
</div>
</div></div>
</section>
<section id="mount-a-file-system-from-the-instance">
<h2>Mount a file system from the instance<a class="headerlink" href="#mount-a-file-system-from-the-instance" title="Link to this heading">¶</a></h2>
<div class="sphinx-tabs docutils container">
<div aria-label="Tabbed content" class="closeable" role="tablist"><button aria-controls="panel-4-Q0xJ" aria-selected="true" class="sphinx-tabs-tab group-tab" id="tab-4-Q0xJ" name="Q0xJ" role="tab" tabindex="0">CLI</button><button aria-controls="panel-4-QVBJ" aria-selected="false" class="sphinx-tabs-tab group-tab" id="tab-4-QVBJ" name="QVBJ" role="tab" tabindex="-1">API</button></div><div aria-labelledby="tab-4-Q0xJ" class="sphinx-tabs-panel group-tab" id="panel-4-Q0xJ" name="Q0xJ" role="tabpanel" tabindex="0"><p>You can mount an instance file system into a local path on your client.</p>
<p>To do so, make sure that you have <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">sshfs</span></code> installed.
Then run the following command (note that if you’re using the snap, the command requires root permissions):</p>
<div class="highlight-none notranslate"><div class="highlight"><pre><span></span>lxc file mount &lt;instance_name&gt;/&lt;path_to_directory&gt; &lt;local_location&gt;
</pre></div>
</div>
<p>You can then access the files from your local machine.</p>
<p class="rubric" id="set-up-an-ssh-sftp-listener">Set up an SSH SFTP listener</p>
<p>Alternatively, you can set up an SSH SFTP listener.
This method allows you to connect with any SFTP client and with a dedicated user name.
Also, if you’re using the snap, it does not require root permission.</p>
<p>To do so, first set up the listener by entering the following command:</p>
<div class="highlight-none notranslate"><div class="highlight"><pre><span></span>lxc file mount &lt;instance_name&gt; [--listen &lt;address&gt;:&lt;port&gt;]
</pre></div>
</div>
<p>For example, to set up the listener on a random port on the local machine (for example, <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">127.0.0.1:45467</span></code>):</p>
<div class="highlight-none notranslate"><div class="highlight"><pre><span></span>lxc file mount my-instance
</pre></div>
</div>
<p>If you want to access your instance files from outside your local network, you can pass a specific address and port:</p>
<div class="highlight-none notranslate"><div class="highlight"><pre><span></span>lxc file mount my-instance --listen 192.0.2.50:2222
</pre></div>
</div>
<div class="admonition caution">
<p class="admonition-title">Caution</p>
<p>Be careful when doing this, because it exposes your instance remotely.</p>
</div>
<p>To set up the listener on a specific address and a random port:</p>
<div class="highlight-none notranslate"><div class="highlight"><pre><span></span>lxc file mount my-instance --listen 192.0.2.50:0
</pre></div>
</div>
<p>The command prints out the assigned port and a user name and password for the connection.</p>
<div class="admonition tip">
<p class="admonition-title">Tip</p>
<p>You can specify a user name by passing the <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">--auth-user</span></code> flag.</p>
</div>
<p>Use this information to access the file system.
For example, if you want to use <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">sshfs</span></code> to connect, enter the following command:</p>
<div class="highlight-none notranslate"><div class="highlight"><pre><span></span>sshfs &lt;user_name&gt;@&lt;address&gt;:&lt;path_to_directory&gt; &lt;local_location&gt; -p &lt;port&gt;
</pre></div>
</div>
<p>For example:</p>
<div class="highlight-none notranslate"><div class="highlight"><pre><span></span>sshfs xFn8ai8c@127.0.0.1:/home my-instance-files -p 35147
</pre></div>
</div>
<p>You can then access the file system of your instance at the specified location on the local machine.</p>
</div><div aria-labelledby="tab-4-QVBJ" class="sphinx-tabs-panel group-tab" hidden="true" id="panel-4-QVBJ" name="QVBJ" role="tabpanel" tabindex="0"><p>Mounting a file system is not directly supported through the API, but requires additional processing logic on the client side.</p>
</div></div>
</section>
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        <ul>
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#">How to access files in an instance</a><ul>
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#edit-instance-files">Edit instance files</a></li>
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#delete-files-from-the-instance">Delete files from the instance</a></li>
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#pull-files-from-the-instance-to-the-local-machine">Pull files from the instance to the local machine</a></li>
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#push-files-from-the-local-machine-to-the-instance">Push files from the local machine to the instance</a></li>
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#mount-a-file-system-from-the-instance">Mount a file system from the instance</a></li>
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