diff --git a/internal/app/wwctl/container/imprt/main.go b/internal/app/wwctl/container/imprt/main.go
index 06a25d93..0f6f47af 100644
--- a/internal/app/wwctl/container/imprt/main.go
+++ b/internal/app/wwctl/container/imprt/main.go
@@ -99,7 +99,8 @@ func CobraRunE(cmd *cobra.Command, args []string) error {
 			wwlog.Printf(wwlog.ERROR, "VNFS Name exists, specify --force, --update, or choose a different name: %s\n", name)
 			os.Exit(1)
 		}
-	} else if strings.HasPrefix(uri, "docker://") || strings.HasPrefix(uri, "docker-daemon://") || strings.HasPrefix(uri, "file://") {
+	} else if strings.HasPrefix(uri, "docker://") || strings.HasPrefix(uri, "docker-daemon://") ||
+		strings.HasPrefix(uri, "file://") || util.IsFile(uri) {
 		sCtx, err := getSystemContext()
 		if err != nil {
 			wwlog.Printf(wwlog.ERROR, "%s\n", err)
diff --git a/internal/app/wwctl/container/imprt/root.go b/internal/app/wwctl/container/imprt/root.go
index ee9c960b..ccbd8cde 100644
--- a/internal/app/wwctl/container/imprt/root.go
+++ b/internal/app/wwctl/container/imprt/root.go
@@ -8,7 +8,13 @@ var (
 		Use:                   "import [OPTIONS] SOURCE [NAME]",
 		Short:                 "Import a container into Warewulf",
 		Long: `This command will pull and import a container into Warewulf from SOURCE,
-optionally renaming it to NAME. The SOURCE must be in a supported URI format.
+optionally renaming it to NAME. The SOURCE must be in a supported URI format. Formats 
+are:
+ * docker://registry.example.org/example:latest
+ * docker-daemon://example:latest
+ * file://path/to/archive/tar/ball
+ * /path/to/archive/tar/ball
+ * /path/to/chroot/
 Imported containers are used to create bootable VNFS images.`,
 		Example: "wwctl container import docker://warewulf/centos-8 my_container",
 		RunE:    CobraRunE,
diff --git a/internal/pkg/oci/puller.go b/internal/pkg/oci/puller.go
index 8058addf..9acae792 100644
--- a/internal/pkg/oci/puller.go
+++ b/internal/pkg/oci/puller.go
@@ -17,6 +17,7 @@ import (
 	"github.com/containers/image/v5/oci/layout"
 	"github.com/containers/image/v5/signature"
 	"github.com/containers/image/v5/types"
+	"github.com/hpcng/warewulf/internal/pkg/util"
 	imgSpecs "github.com/opencontainers/image-spec/specs-go/v1"
 	"github.com/opencontainers/umoci"
 	"github.com/opencontainers/umoci/oci/layer"
@@ -69,6 +70,9 @@ func NewPuller(opts ...pullerOpt) (*puller, error) {
 
 // getReference parsed the uri scheme to determine
 func getReference(uri string) (types.ImageReference, error) {
+	if util.IsFile(uri) {
+		uri = "file://" + uri
+	}
 	s := strings.SplitN(uri, ":", 2)
 	if len(s) != 2 {
 		return nil, fmt.Errorf("invalid uri: %q", uri)