What is image promotion in OpenShift, and how do you move an image between streams?

• A. Promotion deletes old images.
• B. Promotion automatically deploys to production.
• C. Promotion creates new namespaces for images.
• D. Promotion copies an image between image streams/namespaces; use oc tag or image promotion tools to move the tag.

Answer: (D)

Image promotion is about making an image available in another image stream (often in a different namespace) by creating a new tag in the destination stream that references the same underlying image. This lets you move a built image through environments—like from development to production—without rebuilding it each time.

The way you do it is by tagging the image from the source stream into the destination stream. For example, you can copy the tag from a dev image stream to a prod image stream using a command that references both streams, creating a corresponding tag in the destination. You can specify the source and destination streams and tags, and OpenShift’s tools handle the reference to the image in the registry. This tagging operation is what constitutes promotion: the destination receives a tag that points to the promoted image, enabling controlled promotion across namespaces and environments.

Promotion isn’t about deleting old images, automatically deploying to production, or creating new namespaces. Those are separate actions; promotion focuses on moving or re-referencing the image tag from one stream to another.