CPIO(1) System General Commands Manual CPIO(1)
NAME
cpio - copy file archives in and out
SYNOPSIS
cpio -o [-aABcLvzZ] [-C bytes] [-F archive] [-H format] [-O archive] <
name-list [> archive]
cpio -i [-bBcdfmrsStuvzZ6] [-C bytes] [-E file] [-F archive] [-H format]
[-I archive] [pattern ...] [< archive]
cpio -p [-adlLmuv] destination-directory < name-list
DESCRIPTION
The cpio command copies files to and from a cpio archive.
The following options are supported:
-o Create an archive. Reads the list of files to store in the
archive from standard input, and writes the archive on stan-
dard output.
-a Reset the access times on files that has been
copied to the archive.
-A Append to the specified archive.
-B Set block size of output to 5120 bytes.
-c Use ASCII format for cpio header for portability.
-C bytes Set the block size of output to bytes.
-F archive
-O archive Use the specified file name as the archive to
write to.
-H format Write the archive in the specified format. Rec-
ognized formats are:
bcpio Old binary cpio format.
cpio Old octal character cpio format.
sv4cpio
SVR4 hex cpio format.
tar Old tar format.
ustar POSIX ustar format.
-L Follow symbolic links.
-v Be verbose about operations. List filenames as
they are written to the archive.
-z Compress archive using gzip(1) format.
-Z Compress archive using compress(1) format.
-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.
-b Do byte- and word swapping after reading in data
from the archive, for restoring archives created
on systems with different byte order.
-B Set the block size of the archive being read to
5120 bytes.
-c Expect the archive headers to be in ASCII format.
-C bytes Read archive written with a blocksize of bytes.
-d Create any intermediate directories as needed
during restore.
-E file Read list of file name patters to extract or list
from file.
-f Restore all files except those matching the
patterns given on the command line.
-F archive
-I archive Use the specified file as the input for the
archive.
-H format Read an archive of the specified format. Recog-
nized formats are:
bcpio Old binary cpio format.
cpio Old octal character cpio format.
sv4cpio
SVR4 hex cpio format.
tar Old tar format.
ustar POSIX ustar format.
-m Restore modification times on files.
-r Rename restored files interactively.
-s Swap bytes after reading data from the archive.
-S Swap words 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 Be verbose about operations. List filenames as
they are copied in from the archive.
-z Uncompress archive using gzip(1) format.
-Z Uncompress archive using compress(1) format.
-6 Process old-style cpio format archives.
-p Copy files from one location to another in a single pass.
The list of files to copy are read from standard in and writ-
ten out to a directory relative to the specified directory
argument.
-a Reset the access times on files that has been
copied.
-d Create any intermediate directories as needed to
write the files at the new location.
-l When possible, link files rather than creating an
extra copy.
-L Follow symbolic links.
-m Restore modification times on files.
-u Overwrite files even when the original file being
copied is older than the one that will be over-
written.
-v Be verbose about operations. List filenames as
they are copied.
ERRORS
cpio will exit with one of the following values:
0 All files were processed successfully.
1 An error occured.
Whenever cpio 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
options 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 cpio cannot create a link to a file, cpio will not cre-
ate a second copy of the file.
If the extraction of a file from an archive is prematurely terminated by
a signal or error, cpio may have only partially extracted the file the
user wanted. Additionally, the file modes of extracted files and direc-
tories 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, cpio may have only partially created the archive which may violate
the specific archive format specification.
SEE ALSO
pax(1), tar(1)
BUGS
The -s and -S options are currently not implemented.
AUTHOR
Keith Muller at the University of California, San Diego
BSD February 16, 1997 BSD