diff --git a/k8s/copy.go b/k8s/copy.go
index ce6846b499..ed7f7579d7 100644
--- a/k8s/copy.go
+++ b/k8s/copy.go
@@ -8,6 +8,8 @@ import (
 	"fmt"
 	"io"
 	"os"
+	"strconv"
+	"strings"
 )
 
 const (
@@ -16,9 +18,20 @@ const (
 
 // CopyFromPod is to copy srcFile in a given pod to local destFile with defaultMaxTries.
 func (c *Client) CopyFromPod(ctx context.Context, namespace, pod, container, fromFile, destFile string, retryLimit int) error {
+
+	// attempt to get the size of the file
+	fileSize := uint64(0)
+	sizeCmd := []string{"stat", "-c", "%s", fromFile}
+	if res, err := c.ExecInPod(ctx, namespace, pod, container, sizeCmd); err == nil {
+		sizeStr := strings.TrimSuffix(res.String(), "\n")
+		if s, err := strconv.ParseUint(sizeStr, 10, 64); err == nil {
+			fileSize = s
+		}
+	}
+
 	pipe := newPipe(&CopyOptions{
 		MaxTries: retryLimit,
-		ReadFunc: readFromPod(ctx, c, namespace, pod, container, fromFile),
+		ReadFunc: readFromPod(ctx, c, namespace, pod, container, fromFile, fileSize),
 	})
 
 	outFile, err := os.OpenFile(destFile, os.O_APPEND|os.O_CREATE|os.O_WRONLY, 0644)
@@ -27,20 +40,40 @@ func (c *Client) CopyFromPod(ctx context.Context, namespace, pod, container, fro
 	}
 	defer outFile.Close()
 
-	if _, err = io.Copy(outFile, pipe); err != nil {
-		return err
-	}
-	return nil
+	_, err = io.Copy(outFile, pipe)
+	return err
 }
 
-func readFromPod(ctx context.Context, client *Client, namespace, pod, container, srcFile string) ReadFunc {
+type countWriter struct {
+	total uint64
+	w     io.Writer
+}
+
+func (l *countWriter) Write(p []byte) (int, error) {
+	n, err := l.w.Write(p)
+	l.total += uint64(n)
+	return n, err
+}
+
+func readFromPod(ctx context.Context, client *Client, namespace, pod, container, srcFile string, srcFileSize uint64) ReadFunc {
+
 	return func(offset uint64, writer io.Writer) error {
 		command := []string{"sh", "-c", fmt.Sprintf(defaultReadFromByteCmd, offset, srcFile)}
-		return client.execInPodWithWriters(ctx, nil, ExecParameters{
+		outw := &countWriter{w: writer}
+		ret := client.execInPodWithWriters(ctx, nil, ExecParameters{
 			Namespace: namespace,
 			Pod:       pod,
 			Container: container,
 			Command:   command,
-		}, writer, writer)
+		}, outw, writer)
+
+		// if the read command was a success and we know the size of the source file, check
+		// whether we have read everything.
+		if ret == nil && srcFileSize > 0 {
+			if offset+outw.total < srcFileSize {
+				ret = fmt.Errorf("incomplete read: read %d from %s", offset+outw.total, srcFile)
+			}
+		}
+		return ret
 	}
 }