path: root/cpio.1

.TH CPIO 1L \" -*- nroff -*-
.SH NAME
cpio \- copy files to and from archives
.SH SYNOPSIS
.B cpio
{\-o|\-\-create} [\-0acvABLV] [\-C bytes] [\-H format] [\-M message]
[\-O [[user@]host:]archive] [\-F [[user@]host:]archive]
[\-\-file=[[user@]host:]archive] [\-\-format=format] [\-\-message=message]
[\-\-null] [\-\-reset-access-time] [\-\-verbose] [\-\-dot] [\-\-append]
[\-\-block-size=blocks] [\-\-dereference] [\-\-io-size=bytes] [\-\-quiet]
[\-\-force\-local] [\-\-rsh-command=command] [\-\-help] [\-\-version]
< name-list [> archive]

.B cpio
{\-i|\-\-extract} [\-bcdfmnrtsuvBSV] [\-C bytes] [\-E file] [\-H format]
[\-M message] [\-R [user][:.][group]] [\-I [[user@]host:]archive]
[\-F [[user@]host:]archive] [\-\-file=[[user@]host:]archive]
[\-\-make-directories] [\-\-nonmatching] [\-\-preserve-modification-time]
[\-\-numeric-uid-gid] [\-\-rename] [\-t|\-\-list] [\-\-swap-bytes] [\-\-swap] [\-\-dot]
[\-\-unconditional] [\-\-verbose] [\-\-block-size=blocks] [\-\-swap-halfwords]
[\-\-io-size=bytes] [\-\-pattern-file=file] [\-\-format=format]
[\-\-owner=[user][:.][group]] [\-\-no-preserve-owner] [\-\-message=message]
[\-\-force\-local] [\-\-no\-absolute\-filenames] [\-\-sparse]
[\-\-only\-verify\-crc] [\-\-quiet] [\-\-rsh-command=command] [\-\-help]
[\-\-version] [pattern...] [< archive]

.B cpio
{\-p|\-\-pass-through} [\-0adlmuvLV] [\-R [user][:.][group]]
[\-\-null] [\-\-reset-access-time] [\-\-make-directories] [\-\-link] [\-\-quiet]
[\-\-preserve-modification-time] [\-\-unconditional] [\-\-verbose] [\-\-dot]
[\-\-dereference] [\-\-owner=[user][:.][group]] [\-\-no-preserve-owner]
[\-\-sparse] [\-\-help] [\-\-version] destination-directory < name-list
.SH DESCRIPTION
This manual page
documents the GNU version of
.BR cpio .
.B cpio
copies files into or out of a cpio or tar archive, which is a file that
contains other files plus information about them, such as their
file name, owner, timestamps, and access permissions.  The archive can
be another file on the disk, a magnetic tape, or a pipe.
.B cpio
has three operating modes.
.PP
In copy-out mode,
.B cpio
copies files into an archive.  It reads a list of filenames, one per
line, on the standard input, and writes the archive onto the standard
output.  A typical way to generate the list of filenames is with the
.B find
command; you should give
.B find
the \-depth option to minimize problems with permissions on
directories that are unwritable or not searchable.
.PP
In copy-in mode,
.B cpio
copies files out of an archive or lists the archive contents.  It
reads the archive from the standard input.  Any non-option command
line arguments are shell globbing patterns; only files in the archive
whose names match one or more of those patterns are copied from the
archive.  Unlike in the shell, an initial `.' in a filename does
match a wildcard at the start of a pattern, and a `/' in a filename
can match wildcards.  If no patterns are given, all files are
extracted.
.PP
In copy-pass mode,
.B cpio
copies files from one directory tree to another, combining the
copy-out and copy-in steps without actually using an archive.
It reads the list of files to copy from the standard input; the
directory into which it will copy them is given as a non-option
argument.
.PP
.B cpio
supports the following archive formats: binary, old ASCII, new
ASCII, crc, HPUX binary, HPUX old ASCII, old tar, and POSIX.1 tar.  
The binary format 
is obsolete because it encodes information about the files in a way
that is not portable between different machine architectures.
The old ASCII format is portable between different machine architectures,
but should not be used on file systems with more than 65536 i-nodes.
The new ASCII format is portable between different machine architectures
and can be used on any size file system, but is not supported by all
versions of
.BR cpio ;
currently, it is only supported by GNU and Unix System V R4.
The crc format is
like the new ASCII format, but also contains a checksum for each file
which
.B cpio 
calculates when creating an archive
and verifies when the file is extracted from the archive.
The HPUX formats are provided for compatibility with HPUX's cpio which
stores device files differently.
.PP
The tar format is provided for compatability with
the
.B tar
program.  It can not be used to archive files with names
longer than 100 characters, and can not be used to archive "special"
(block or character devices) files.
The POSIX.1 tar format can not be used to archive files with names longer
than 255 characters (less unless they have a "/" in just the right place).
.PP
By default,  
.B cpio
creates binary format archives, for compatibility with
older
.B cpio
programs.
When extracting from archives,
.B cpio
automatically recognizes which kind of archive it is reading and can
read archives created on machines with a different byte-order.
.PP
Some of the options to
.B cpio
apply only to certain operating modes; see the SYNOPSIS section for a
list of which options are allowed in which modes.
.SS OPTIONS
.TP
.I "\-0, \-\-null"
In copy-out and copy-pass modes, read a list of filenames terminated
by a null character instead of a newline, so that files whose names
contain newlines can be archived.  GNU
.B find
is one way to produce a list of null-terminated filenames.
.TP
.I "\-a, \-\-reset-access-time"
Reset the access times of files after reading them, so that it does
not look like they have just been read.
.TP
.I "\-A, \-\-append"
Append to an existing archive.  Only works in copy-out mode.  The
archive must be a disk file specified with the
.I \-O
or
.I "\-F (\-\-file)"
option.
.TP
.I "\-b, \-\-swap"
In copy-in mode, swap both halfwords of words and bytes of halfwords
in the data.  Equivalent to
.IR "\-sS" .
Use this option to convert 32-bit integers between big-endian and
little-endian machines.
.TP
.I "\-B"
Set the I/O block size to 5120 bytes.  Initially the block size is 512
bytes.
.TP
.I "\-\-block-size=BLOCK-SIZE"
Set the I/O block size to BLOCK-SIZE * 512 bytes.
.TP
.I "\-c"
Use the old portable (ASCII) archive format.
.TP
.I "\-C IO-SIZE, \-\-io-size=IO-SIZE"
Set the I/O block size to IO-SIZE bytes.
.TP
.I "\-d, \-\-make-directories"
Create leading directories where needed.
.TP
.I "\-E FILE, \-\-pattern-file=FILE"
In copy-in mode, read additional patterns specifying filenames to
extract or list from FILE.  The lines of FILE are treated as if they
had been non-option arguments to
.BR cpio .
.TP
.I "\-f, \-\-nonmatching"
Only copy files that do not match any of the given patterns.
.TP
.I "\-F, \-\-file=archive"
Archive filename to use instead of standard input or output.  To use a
tape drive on another machine as the archive, use a filename that
starts with `HOSTNAME:'.  The hostname can be preceded by a
username and an `@' to access the remote tape drive as that user, if
you have permission to do so (typically an entry in that user's
`~/.rhosts' file).
.TP
.I "\-\-force-local"
With
.IR \-F ,
.IR \-I ,
or
.IR \-O ,
take the archive file name to be a local file even if it contains a
colon, which would ordinarily indicate a remote host name.
.TP
.I "\-H FORMAT, \-\-format=FORMAT"
Use archive format FORMAT.  The valid formats are listed below;
the same names are also recognized in all-caps.  The default in
copy-in mode is to automatically detect the archive format, and in
copy-out mode is "bin".
.RS
.IP bin
The obsolete binary format.
.IP odc
The old (POSIX.1) portable format.
.IP newc
The new (SVR4) portable format, which supports file systems having
more than 65536 i-nodes.
.IP crc
The new (SVR4) portable format with a checksum added.
.IP tar
The old tar format.
.IP ustar
The POSIX.1 tar format.  Also recognizes GNU
.B tar
archives, which are similar but not identical.
.IP hpbin
The obsolete binary format used by HPUX's cpio (which stores device files
differently).
.IP hpodc
The portable format used by HPUX's cpio (which stores device files differently).
.RE
.TP
.I "\-i, \-\-extract"
Run in copy-in mode.
.TP
.I "\-I archive"
Archive filename to use instead of standard input.  To use a
tape drive on another machine as the archive, use a filename that
starts with `HOSTNAME:'.  The hostname can be preceded by a
username and an `@' to access the remote tape drive as that user, if
you have permission to do so (typically an entry in that user's
`~/.rhosts' file).
.TP
.I \-k
Ignored; for compatibility with other versions of
.BR cpio .
.TP
.I "\-l, \-\-link"
Link files instead of copying them, when possible.
.TP
.I "\-L, \-\-dereference"
Dereference symbolic links (copy the files that they point to instead
of copying the links).
.TP
.I "\-m, \-\-preserve-modification-time"
Retain previous file modification times when creating files.
.TP
.I "\-M MESSAGE, \-\-message=MESSAGE"
Print MESSAGE when the end of a volume of the backup media (such as a
tape or a floppy disk) is reached, to prompt the user to insert a new
volume.  If MESSAGE contains the string "%d", it is replaced by the
current volume number (starting at 1).
.TP
.I "\-n, \-\-numeric-uid-gid"
In the verbose table of contents listing, show numeric UID and GID
instead of translating them into names.
Also extracts tar archives using the numeric UID and GID instead of the
user/group names.
.RB ( cpio
archives are always extracted using the numeric UID and GID.)
.TP
.I " \-\-no-absolute-filenames"
In copy-in mode, create all files relative to the current directory,
even if they have an absolute file name in the archive.
.TP
.I " \-\-no-preserve-owner"
In copy-in mode and copy-pass mode, do not change the ownership of the
files; leave them owned by the user extracting them.  This is the
default for non-root users, so that users on System V don't
inadvertantly give away files.
.TP
.I "\-o, \-\-create"
Run in copy-out mode.
.TP
.I "\-O archive"
Archive filename to use instead of standard output.  To use a tape
drive on another machine as the archive, use a filename that starts
with `HOSTNAME:'.  The hostname can be preceded by a username and an
`@' to access the remote tape drive as that user, if you have
permission to do so (typically an entry in that user's `~/.rhosts'
file).
.TP
.I " \-\-only-verify-crc"
When reading a CRC format archive in copy-in mode, only verify the
CRC's of each file in the archive, don't actually extract the files.
.TP
.I "\-p, \-\-pass-through"
Run in copy-pass mode.
.TP
.I "\-\-quiet"
Do not print the number of blocks copied.
.TP
.I "\-r, \-\-rename"
Interactively rename files.
.TP
.I "\-R [user][:.][group], \-\-owner [user][:.][group]"
In copy-out and copy-pass modes, set the ownership of all files created
to the specified user and/or group.  Either the user or the group, or
both, must be present.  If the group is omitted but the ":" or "."
separator is given, use the given user's login group.  Only the
super-user can change files' ownership.
.TP
.I "\-\-rsh-command=COMMAND"
Notifies
.B mt
that it should use COMMAND to communicate with remote devices instead of
.I /usr/bin/ssh
or
.IR /usr/bin/rsh .
.TP
.I "\-\-sparse"
In copy-in and copy-pass modes, write files with large blocks of zeros
as sparse files.
.TP
.I "\-s, \-\-swap-bytes"
In copy-in mode, swap the bytes of each halfword (pair of bytes) in the
files.
.TP
.I "\-S, \-\-swap-halfwords"
In copy-in mode, swap the halfwords of each word (4 bytes) in the
files.
.TP
.I "\-t, \-\-list"
Print a table of contents of the input.
.TP
.I "\-u, \-\-unconditional"
Replace all files, without asking whether to replace existing newer
files with older files.
.TP
.I "\-v, \-\-verbose"
List the files processed, or with
.IR \-t ,
give an `ls \-l' style table of contents listing.  In a verbose table
of contents of a ustar archive, user and group names in the archive
that do not exist on the local system are replaced by the names that
correspond locally to the numeric UID and GID stored in the archive.
.TP
.I "\-V \-\-dot"
Print a "." for each file processed.
.TP
.I "\-\-version"
Print the
.B cpio
program version number and exit.