paxcpio(1)


NAME

     paxcpio --- copy file archives in and out

SYNOPSIS

     paxcpio -o [-0AaBcJjLVvZz] [-C bytes] [-F archive] [-H format] [-M flag]
         [-O archive] < name-list [> archive]
     paxcpio -i [-06BbcdfJjmrSstuVvZz] [-C bytes] [-E file] [-F archive]
         [-H format] [-I archive] [-M flag] [pattern ...] [< archive]
     paxcpio -p [-0adLlmuVv] destination-directory < name-list

DESCRIPTION

     The paxcpio command copies files to and from a cpio archive.

     The options are as follows:

     -0      Use the NUL ('\0') character as a pathname terminator, instead of
         newline ('\n').  This applies only to the pathnames read from
         standard input in the write and copy modes, and to the pathnames
         written to standard output in list mode.  This option is expected
         to be used in concert with the -print0 function in find(1) or the
         -0 flag in xargs(1).

     -o      Create an archive.  Reads the list of files to store in the
         archive from standard input, and writes the archive on standard
         output.

         -A      Append to the specified archive.

         -a      Reset the access times on files that have been copied to
                 the archive.

         -B      Set block size of output to 5120 bytes.

         -C bytes
                 Set the block size of output to bytes.

         -c      Use ASCII format for cpio header for portability.

         -F archive
                 Use the specified file as the input for the archive.

         -H format
                 Write the archive in the specified format.  Recognised
                 formats are:

                 ar       Unix Archiver.
                 bcpio    Old binary cpio format.  Selected by -6.
                 cpio     Old octal character cpio format.  Selected by
                          -c.
                 sv4cpio  SVR4 hex cpio format.
                 sv4crc   SVR4 hex cpio format with checksums.  This is
                          the default format for creating new archives.
                 tar      Old tar format.
                 ustar    POSIX ustar format.

                 bin      These four formats...
                 crc      ...are supported...
                 newc     ...for backwards...
                 odc      ...compatibility only.

         -J      Use the xz utility to compress the archive.

         -j      Use the bzip2 utility to compress the archive.

         -L      Follow symbolic links.

         -M flag
                 Configure the archive normaliser.  flag is either a
                 numeric value compatible to strtonum(3) which is directly
                 stored in the flags word, or one of the following values,
                 optionally prefixed with "no-" to turn them off:

                 inodes  0x0001: Serialise inodes, zero device info.
                         (cpio, sv4cpio, sv4crc)
                 links   0x0002: Store content of hard links only once.
                         (cpio, sv4cpio, sv4crc)
                 mtime   0x0004: Zero out the file modification time.
                         (ar, cpio, sv4cpio, sv4crc, ustar)
                 uidgid  0x0008: Set owner to 0:0 (root:wheel).
                         (ar, cpio, sv4cpio, sv4crc, ustar)
                 verb    0x0010: Debug this option.
                 debug   0x0020: Debug file header storage.
                 lncp    0x0040: Extract hard links by copy if link fails.
                 numid   0x0080: Use only numeric uid and gid values.
                         (ustar)
                 gslash  0x0100: Append a slash after directory names.
                         (ustar)
                 set     0x0003: Keep ownership and mtime intact.
                 dist    0x008B: Clean everything except mtime.
                 norm    0x008F: Clean everything.
                 root    0x0089: Clean owner and device information.

                 When creating an archive and verbosely listing output,
                 these normalisation operations are not reflected in the
                 output, because they are made only after the output has
                 been shown.

                 This option is only implemented for the ar, cpio,
                 sv4cpio, sv4crc, and ustar file format writing routines.

         -O archive
                 Use the specified file name as the archive to write to.

         -V      Print a dot ('.') for each file written to the archive.

         -v      Be verbose about operations.  List filenames as they are
                 written to the archive.

         -Z      Use the compress(1) utility to compress the archive.

         -z      Use the gzip(1) utility to compress the archive.

     -i      Restore files from an archive.  Reads the archive file from
         standard input and extracts files matching the patterns that were
         specified on the command line.

         -6      Process old-style cpio format archives.

         -B      Set the block size of the archive being read to 5120
                 bytes.

         -b      Do byte and word swapping after reading in data from the
                 archive, for restoring archives created on systems with a
                 different byte order.

         -C bytes
                 Read archive written with a block size of bytes.

         -c      Expect the archive headers to be in ASCII format.

         -d      Create any intermediate directories as needed during
                 restore.

         -E file
                 Read list of file name patterns to extract or list from
                 file.

         -F archive, -I archive
                 Use the specified file as the input for the archive.

         -f      Restore all files except those matching the patterns
                 given on the command line.

         -H format
                 Read an archive of the specified format.  Recognised
                 formats are:

                 ar       Unix Archiver.
                 bcpio    Old binary cpio format.
                 cpio     Old octal character cpio format.
                 sv4cpio  SVR4 hex cpio format.
                 sv4crc   SVR4 hex cpio format with checksums.
                 tar      Old tar format.
                 ustar    POSIX ustar format.

                 bin      These four formats...
                 crc      ...are supported...
                 newc     ...for backwards...
                 odc      ...compatibility only.

         -J      Use the xz utility to decompress the archive.

         -j      Use the bzip2 utility to decompress the archive.

         -m      Restore modification times on files.

         -r      Rename restored files interactively.

         -S      Swap words after reading data from the archive.

         -s      Swap bytes after reading data from the archive.

         -t      Only list the contents of the archive, no files or
                 directories will be created.

         -u      Overwrite files even when the file in the archive is
                 older than the one that will be overwritten.

         -V      Print a dot ('.') for each file read from the archive.

         -v      Be verbose about operations.  List filenames as they are
                 copied in from the archive.

         -Z      Use the compress(1) utility to decompress the archive.

         -z      Use the gzip(1) utility to decompress the archive.

     -p      Copy files from one location to another in a single pass.  The
         list of files to copy are read from standard input and written
         out to a directory relative to the specified directory argument.

         -a      Reset the access times on files that have been copied.

         -d      Create any intermediate directories as needed to write
                 the files at the new location.

         -L      Follow symbolic links.

         -l      When possible, link files rather than creating an extra
                 copy.

         -m      Restore modification times on files.

         -u      Overwrite files even when the original file being copied
                 is older than the one that will be overwritten.

         -V      Print a dot ('.') for each file copied.

         -v      Be verbose about operations.  List filenames as they are
                 copied.

ENVIRONMENT

     TMPDIR      Path in which to store temporary files.

EXIT STATUS

     The paxcpio utility exits with one of the following values:

       0       All files were processed successfully.
       1       An error occurred.

DIAGNOSTICS

     Whenever paxcpio cannot create a file or a link when extracting an
     archive or cannot find a file while writing an archive, or cannot
     preserve the user ID, group ID, file mode, or access and modification
     times when the -p option is specified, a diagnostic message is written to
     standard error and a non-zero exit value will be returned, but processing
     will continue.  In the case where paxcpio cannot create a link to a file,
     unless -M lncp is given, paxcpio will not create a second copy of the
     file.

     If the extraction of a file from an archive is prematurely terminated by
     a signal or error, paxcpio may have only partially extracted the file the
     user wanted.  Additionally, the file modes of extracted files and
     directories may have incorrect file bits, and the modification and access
     times may be wrong.

     If the creation of an archive is prematurely terminated by a signal or
     error, paxcpio may have only partially created the archive, which may
     violate the specific archive format specification.

SEE ALSO

     ar(1), cpio(1), deb(5), pax(1), paxtar(1), tar(1)

AUTHORS

     Keith Muller at the University of California, San Diego.  MirOS
     extensions by
     mirabilos <m@mirbsd.org>.

CAVEATS

     Different file formats have different maximum file sizes.  It is
     recommended that a format such as cpio or ustar be used for larger files.

       File format    Maximum file size
       ar             10 Gigabytes - 1 Byte
       bcpio          4 Gibibytes
       sv4cpio        4 Gibibytes
       cpio           8 Gibibytes
       tar            8 Gibibytes
       ustar          8 Gibibytes

     The backwards-compatible format options are not available in the pax(1)
     front-end.

     The -M option is a MirBSD extension, available starting with MirOS 8.
     Archives written using these options are, however, compatible to the
     standard and should be readable on any other system.  The only option
     whose behaviour is not explicitly allowed by the standard is hard link
     unification (write file contens only once) selected by -M 0x0002.

     The -V option is a GNU extension, available starting with MirOS 11.

     The ar file format matches APT repositories and the BSD ar(1)
     specification, not GNU binutils (which can however read them) or SYSV
     systems.

BUGS

     The -s and -S options are currently not implemented.

     The pax file format is not yet supported.





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