docker-load

View documentation for the original command

$ tldr docker image load

docker load [-i|--input string] [-q|--quiet] [filename]

-i, --input string
    Read from tar archive file, instead of STDIN

-q, --quiet
    Suppress verbose progress output

The docker load command loads one or more Docker images from a tar archive into the local image store managed by the Docker daemon. The archive is typically created using docker save and contains image layers, configurations, tags, and history. This enables transferring images between hosts without a registry, ideal for offline or air-gapped environments, backups, or development workflows.

Images can be loaded from a file specified via positional argument, -i or --input, or from STDIN (e.g., piped input). The command automatically detects and decompresses common formats including .tar, .tar.gz, .tgz, .tar.xz, .txz, and Zstandard variants, simplifying handling of compressed archives.

Upon loading, Docker extracts layers to /var/lib/docker (or equivalent), applies tags, and updates the image database. Progress output lists loaded repositories and tags unless suppressed with --quiet. Loaded images are immediately usable with docker run, docker push, etc.

Key distinction: docker load preserves multi-layer structure and metadata, unlike docker import which creates flat, single-layer images from filesystem tarballs. Disk space and time scale with image size; large images (GBs) require ample resources.

Archive must originate from docker save or equivalent; incompatible formats or corrupt files fail silently or with errors. Host architecture must match image platform (e.g., amd64/arm64), or use emulation. No integrity verification—use trusted sources. Increases disk usage in /var/lib/docker; prune with docker image prune. Requires Docker daemon running.

docker load image.tar (load from file)
docker load < image.tar (from STDIN)
docker save nginx:latest -o nginx.tar
gzip nginx.tar && docker load -i nginx.tar.gz
docker load -q repo/image:tag.tar (quiet mode)

Introduced in Docker 1.0 (June 2014) as core CLI for image import. Compressed archive auto-detection added incrementally: gzip in early versions, XZ/Zstd in Docker 20.10+ (2020). Remains stable with minor output improvements.

docker-save(1), docker-images(1), docker-import(1), docker(1)