qubes-doc/common-tasks/copy-from-dom0.md

---
layout: doc
title: Copying from (and to) dom0
permalink: /doc/copy-from-dom0/
redirect_from:
- /doc/copy-to-dom0/
- /en/doc/copy-to-dom0/
- /doc/CopyToDomZero/
- /wiki/CopyToDomZero/
---

Copying from (and to) dom0
==========================

Copying **from** dom0
---------------------

To copy a file from dom0 to a VM (domU), simply use `qvm-copy-to-vm`:

~~~
qvm-copy-to-vm <dest-vm> <file>
~~~

The file will arrive in your destination VM in the `~/QubesIncoming/dom0/`
directory.

### Copying logs from Dom0 ###

In order to easily copy/paste the contents of logs from dom0 to the inter-VM
clipboard, you can simply:

1.  Right-click on the desired VM in the Qubes VM Manager.
2.  Click "Logs."
3.  Click on the desired log.
4.  Click "Copy to Qubes clipboard."

You may now paste the log contents to any VM as you normally would (i.e.,
Ctrl-Shift-V, then Ctrl-V).

### Copy/paste from Dom0 ###

For data other than logs, there are several options:

1.  Copy it as a file (see above)
2.  Since updated versions of 3.2 you can copy text to the dom0 clipboard
    (Ctrl-C as normal), then click "Copy Dom0 clipboard" in the Qubes menu:
    ![copy-dom0-clipboard](/attachment/wiki/QubesScreenshots/r3.2-dom0-copyout.png)
    which is equivelant to Ctrl-Shift-C from a normal AppVM.
    Then you can use Ctrl-Shift-V and Ctrl-V to paste the copied text into an
    AppVM as normal.
3.  In older versions, write the data you wish to copy into
    `/var/run/qubes/qubes-clipboard.bin`, then write "dom0" to
    `/var/run/qubes/qubes-clipboard.bin.source`.
    Then use Ctrl-Shift-V to paste the data to the desired VM.


Copying **to** Dom0
-------------------

There should normally be few reasons for the user to want to copy files from VMs
to Dom0, as Dom0 only acts as a "thin trusted terminal", and no user
applications run there. Copying untrusted files to Dom0 is not advised and may
compromise the security of your Qubes system. Because of this, we do not provide
a graphical user interface for it, unlike [copying files between
VMs](/doc/copying-files/).

One common use-case for this is if we want to use a desktop wallpaper in Dom0 we
have located in one of our AppVMs (e.g. in the 'personal' AppVM where we got the
wallpaper from our camera or downloaded it from the Internet). While it's a
well-justified reason, imagine what would happen if the wallpaper (e.g. a JPEG
file) was somehow malformed or malicious and attempted to exploit a hypothetical
JPEG parser bug in Dom0 code (e.g. in the Dom0's Xorg/KDE code that parses the
wallpaper and displays it).

If you are determined to copy some files to Dom0 anyway, you can use the
following method (run this command from Dom0's console):

~~~
qvm-run --pass-io <src-vm> 'cat /path/to/file_in_src_domain' > /path/to/file_name_in_dom0
~~~

You can use the same method to copy files from Dom0 to VMs (if, for some reason,
you don't want to use `qvm-copy-to-vm`):

~~~
cat /path/to/file_in_dom0 | qvm-run --pass-io <dest-vm> 'cat > /path/to/file_name_in_appvm'
~~~