1SCPIO(1L) Schily´s USER COMMANDS SCPIO(1L)
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6 scpio - copy file archives in and out (LEGACY)
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9 scpio [ other options ] -o[aBcv]
10 scpio [ other options ] -i[Bcdmruvf] [ pattern ... ]
11 scpio [ other options ] -it[Bcvf] [ pattern ... ]
12 scpio [ other options ] -p[adlmuv] directory
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15 The scpio utility, depending on the options used:
16 · copies files to an archive file
18 · extracts files from an archive file
20 · lists files from an archive file
22 · copies files from one directory tree to another.
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26 The scpio utility supports the XBD specification Utility Syntax Guide‐
27 lines. The cpio standard does not allow the option modifiers to be pre‐
28 sented as separate arguments from the option letters. The scpio imple‐
29 mentation allows option modifiers to be presented as separate arguments
30 from the option letters. When writing portable shell scripts do never
31 make use of this feature.
32 The following options are supported:
34 -o (Copy Out.) Read the standard input to obtain a list of path‐
36 names and copy those files onto the standard output together
37 with pathname and status information. Output is padded to a
38 512-byte boundary.
39 -i (Copy In.) Extract files from the standard input, which is
41 assumed to be the product of a previous scpio -o. Only files
42 with names that match patterns are selected. The extracted files
43 are conditionally created and copied into the current directory
44 tree based upon the options described below. The permissions of
45 the files will be those of the previous scpio -o. The owner and
46 group of the files will be that of the current user unless the
47 user has appropriate privileges, which causes scpio to retain
48 the owner and group of the files of the previous scpio -o. If
49 the archive being read does not match the modifier specified,
50 scpio may consider this to be an error and exit or may recognise
51 the archive and continue processing. Only a user with appropri‐
52 ate privileges can extract block special or character special
53 files from an archive.
54 -it (List.) List files from the archive. This is a sub mode of the
56 copy in mode, no files are created in list mode.
57 -p (Pass.) Read the standard input to obtain a list of pathnames of
59 files that are conditionally created and copied into the desti‐
60 nation directory tree based upon the option modifiers described
61 below.
62 The following option modifiers can be appended in any sequence to the
64 -o, -i or -p options:
65 a Reset access times of input files after they have been copied.
67 (When option l (see below) is also specified, the access times
68 of the linked files are not reset.)
69 B Block input/output 5120 bytes to the record (does not apply to
71 the -p option; meaningful only with data directed to or from
72 character special files).
73 d Create directories as needed.
75 c Write or read header information in character form for portabil‐
77 ity. Note that the Open Group standard does not specify the ar‐
78 chive format that should be used with the c option. For this
79 reason it is questionable wether the c option increases porta‐
80 bility in general.
81 The archive format used by scpio with the c option is the format
83 from the -H asc option. It gives best cpio compatibility when
84 transferring files to SVR4-based systems (except that the file
85 size is limited to 2 gigabytes). When transferring files in
86 cpio archives to unknown operating systems, it is unwise to use
87 the c option.
88 r Interactively rename files. For each archive member matching
90 pattern operand, a prompt will be written to the file /dev/tty.
91 The prompt will contain the name of the archive member, but the
92 format is otherwise unspecified. A line will then be read from
93 /dev/tty. If this line is blank, the archive member will be
94 skipped. If this line consists of a single period, the archive
95 member will be processed with no modification to its name. Oth‐
96 erwise, its name will be replaced with the contents of the line.
97 The scpio utility will immediately exit with a non-zero exit
98 status if end-of-file is encountered when reading a response, or
99 if /dev/tty cannot be opened for reading and writing.
100 t Write a table of contents of the input. No files are created.
102 u Copy unconditionally (normally, an older file will not replace a
104 newer file with the same name).
105 v Verbose: print the names of the affected files. With the t
107 option, provides a detailed listing.
108 l Whenever possible, link files rather than copying them. Usable
110 only with the -p option. The l option modifier is not yet sup‐
111 ported by scpio.
112 m Retain previous file modification time. This option is ineffec‐
115 tive on directories that are being copied.
116 f Copy in all files except those in patterns.
118 The following other options are implemented as SVr4 compliant extension
121 to the Open Group standard:
122 -6 Extract UNIX System Sixth Edition cpio archives. This option is
124 not valid in archive create mode, it is mutually exclusive with
125 -c, -H, and artype=. As is is unclear how UNIX System Sixth
126 Edition cpio archives look like, this option is currently unsup‐
127 ported.
128 -@ Include extended file attributes in the archive. This option is
130 currently unsupported.
131 -A Append files to an existing archive. The -A option only works
133 together with the -O option. See star -r for more information.
134 -b Reverses the order of the bytes within each word. It is unclear
136 what a word is supposed to be. This option is unsupported but
137 not needed as scpio includes automatic byte order recognition.
138 -C # Sets (input/output) archive block size to # bytes.
140 -E name
142 Read filenames for store/create/list command from name. The
143 file name must contain a list of filenames, each on a separate
144 line.
145 -H header
147 Set the archive type to header. See star(1) for more informa‐
148 tion.
149 -I nm Use nm as archive file name instead of stdin.
151 -k Try to skip corrupt archive headers.
153 -L Follow symbolic links as if they were files.
155 -M message
157 Define a message that is uses when switching media. This option
158 is currently unsupported.
159 -O nm Use nm as archive file name instead of stdout.
161 -P Handle Access Control List (ACL) information in create and
163 extract mode. See star -acl for more information.
164 -R nm Reassign ownership and group for all files based on nm. This
166 option is currently unsupported.
167 -s Reverses the order of the bytes within each word. It is unclear
169 what a word is supposed to be. This option is unsupported but
170 not needed as scpio includes automatic byte order recognition.
171 -S Reverses the order of the halfwords within each word. It is
173 unclear what a word is supposed to be. This option is unsup‐
174 ported but not needed as scpio includes automatic byte order
175 recognition.
176 -V Special verbose. Print a dot for each file that is read or writ‐
178 ten. This option is currently unsupported.
179 The following other options are implemented as star extension to the
181 Open Group standard:
182 -help Prints a summary of the most important options for scpio(1) and
184 exits.
185 -xhelp Prints a summary of the less important options for scpio(1) and
187 exits.
188 -version
190 Prints the scpio version number string and exists.
191 -/ Don't strip leading slashes from file names when extracting an
193 archive. See star(1) for more information.
194 .. Don't skip files that contain /../ in the name. See star(1) for
196 more information.
197 -7z run the input or output through a p7zip pipe - see option -z
199 below.
200 Note that the p7zip program currently does not operate on a pipe
202 but on a /tmp file copy and thus limits the maximum archive
203 size.
204 -acl Handle Access Control List (ACL) information in create and
207 extract mode. See star(1) for more information.
208 artype=header
210 Set the archive type to header. See star(1) for more informa‐
211 tion.
212 -lzo Run the input or output through a lzop pipe - see option -z
214 below.
215 -bz Run the input or output through a bzip2 pipe - see option -z
217 below. As the -bz the -z options are non standard, it makes
218 sense to omit -bz options the inside shell scripts. If you are
219 going to extract a compressed archive that is located inside a
220 plain file, scpio will auto detect compression and choose the
221 right decompression option to extract.
222 bs=# Set block size to #. You may use the same method as in dd(1) and
224 sdd(1). See star(1) for more information.
225 -fifostats
227 Print fifo statistics at the end of a scpio run when the fifo
228 has been in effect.
229 fs=# Set fifo size to #. See star(1) for more information.
231 -no-fifo
233 Do not use a fifo to optimize data flow from/to tape. See
234 star(1) for more information.
235 -no-fsync
237 Do not call fsync(2) for each file that has been extracted from
238 the archive. See star(1) for more information.
239 -do-fsync
241 Call fsync(2) for each file that has been extracted from the ar‐
242 chive. See star(1) for more information.
243 -no-statistics
245 Do not print statistic messages at the end of a scpio run.
246 -secure-links
248 Do not extract hard links or symbolic links if the link name
249 (the target of the link) starts with a slash (/) or if /../ is
250 contained in the link name. See star(1) for more information.
251 -numeric
253 Use the numeric user/group fields in the listing rather than the
254 default. See star(1) for more information.
255 -time Print timing info. See star(1) for more information.
257 -xfflags
259 Store and extract extended file flags as found on BSD and Linux
260 systems. See star -acl for more information.
261 -z Run the input or output through a gzip pipe - see option -bz
263 above. As the -bz the -z options are non standard, it makes
264 sense to omit -bz options the inside shell scripts. If you are
265 going to extract a compressed archive that is located inside a
266 plain file, scpio will auto detect compression and choose the
267 right decompression option to extract.
268 -zstd run the input or output through a zstd pipe - see option -z
270 above.
271
274 The following operands are supported:
275 directory
277 A pathname of an existing directory to be used as the target of
278 scpio -p.
279 pattern
281 Expressions making use of a pattern-matching notation similar to
282 that used by the shell for filename pattern matching, and simi‐
283 lar to regular expressions. The following metacharacters are
284 defined:
285 * Matches any string, including the empty string.
287 ? Matches any single character.
289 [...] Matches any one of the enclosed characters. A pair of
291 characters separated by `-' matches any symbol between
292 the pair (inclusive), as defined by the system default
293 collating sequence. If the first character following the
294 opening `[' is a `!', the results are unspecified.
295 In pattern, the special characters "?", "*" and "[" also match
297 the "/" character. Multiple cases of pattern can be specified
298 and if no pattern is specified, the default for pattern is "*"
299 (that is, select all files).
300 Note that scpio does not use fnmatch(3) based pattern matching
302 as documented above, it rather uses the pattern matcher docu‐
303 mented in match(1).
304
306 When the -o or -p options are used, the standard input is a text file
307 containing a list of pathnames, one per line, to be copied.
308 When the -i option is used, the standard input is an archive file for‐
310 matted in any way that is understood by the archive handling engine
311 (see -H help option for a complete list).
312
314 The files identified by the pathnames in the standard input are of any
315 type.
316 When the -r option is used, the file /dev/tty is used to write prompts
318 and read responses.
319
321 Default.
322
324 When the -o option is used, the standard output is an archive file for‐
325 matted as specified by pax with the -x cpio option. For better compati‐
326 bility with SVR4-based systems that do not implement the cpio format
327 correctly, scpio by default limits the length of file names to 256
328 bytes. Use scpio -H cpio to explicitly switch to the full POSIX
329 1003.1-1988 cpio archive format.
330 Otherwise, the standard output contains commentary in an unspecified
332 format concerning the progress of the execution.
333
335 When the -o option is not used, the standard error contains commentary
336 in an unspecified format concerning the progress of the execution. Oth‐
337 erwise, the standard error is used only for diagnostic messages.
338
340 Output files are created, as specified by the archive, when the -i or
341 -p options are used.
342
344 None.
345
348 The following exit values are returned:
349 0 Successful completion.
351 >0 An error occurred.
353
355 If a file or directory cannot be created or overwritten, scpio contin‐
356 ues with the next file in the archive or file to be added to the ar‐
357 chive.
358
361 Archives created by scpio are portable between XSI-conformant systems
362 provided the same procedures are used.
363 The shell metacharacter notation is not fully compatible with that used
365 by the shell and the pax utility. Not all systems support the use of
366 the negation character [! ...] in cpio patterns. Portable applications
367 must avoid the use of this notation.
368 For portable communication of data between XSI-conformant systems, it
370 is recommended that only characters defined in the ISO/IEC 646:1991
371 standard International Reference Version (equivalent to ASCII) 7-bit
372 range of characters be used and that only characters defined in the
373 Portable Filename Character Set be used for naming files. This recom‐
374 mendation is given because XSI-conformant systems support diverse code‐
375 sets and run in various geographical areas and there is no single,
376 well-established codeset that incorporates all of the characters of the
377 languages of the various geographical areas.
378 The cpio archive format only supports file sizes up to 8 gigabytes.
380 Applications should migrate to the pax archive format which is the
382 POSIX 1003.1-2001 standard archive format and based on an extended tar
383 format.
384
387 None.
388
391 1. Copy the contents of a directory onto an archive:
392 ls | scpio -o >../cpio.out
394 2. Duplicate a directory hierarchy:
396 cd olddir
398 find . -depth -print | scpio -pd ../newdir
399
402 The following environment variables may affect the execution of scpio:
403 TZ Determine the timezone used with date and time strings.
405
407 ar(1), find(1), sfind(1), ls(1), match(1), pax(1), spax(1), tar(1),
408 star(1).
409
412 The default block size for cpio is 512 bytes, this slows down write
413 speed. Use -B, -C, or bs= to set a different block size.
414 Scpio -iu is equivalent to star -xU -install -force-remove
416 -remove-recursive and for this reason may remove nonempty directory
417 trees in extrace mode without printing a warning.
418 The Open Group, have given us permission to reprint portions of their
420 documentation. In the following statement, the phrase ``this text''
421 refers to portions of the system documentation.
422 Portions of this text are reprinted and reproduced in electronic form
424 in the scpio manual, from The Open Group Base Specifications Issue 5,
425 Copyright (C) 1997 by The Open Group. In the event of any discrepancy
426 between these versions and the original specification, the original The
427 Open Group Standard is the referee document. The original Standard can
428 be obtained online at http://www.opengroup.org/unix/single_unix_speci‐
429 fication_v2.
430
433 Joerg Schilling
434 Seestr. 110
435 D-13353 Berlin
436 Germany
437 Mail bugs and suggestions to:
439 joerg.schilling@fokus.fraunhofer.de or joerg@schily.net
441Joerg Schilling 2019/01/05 SCPIO(1L)