1CPIO(1L)                                                              CPIO(1L)
2
3
4

NAME

6       cpio - copy files to and from archives
7

__WARNING__

9       The  cpio  utility  is  considered LEGACY based on POSIX specification.
10       Users are encouraged to use other archiving tools for archive creation.
11
12       If you decided to use cpio, you should almost always force cpio to  use
13       the  ustar format in copy-out mode by the -H option (cpio -o -H ustar).
14       This is because the ustar format is well defined in POSIX specification
15       and thus readable by wide range of other archiving tools (including tar
16       e.g.).
17
18       By default, GNU cpio uses (for historical reasons) the very old  binary
19       format ('bin') which has significant problems nowadays, e.g. with stor‐
20       ing big inode numbers (see the Red Hat bug #952313).
21
22       Note also that these days the modern 'pax'  archive  format  should  be
23       considered  as the default -- but this format is not implemented in GNU
24       cpio.  You should, again, consider using  other  archivers  (e.g.  'tar
25       --format=pax').
26
27

SYNOPSIS

29       Copy-out mode
30
31       In  copy-out  mode, cpio copies files into an archive.  It reads a list
32       of filenames, one per line, on the standard input, and writes  the  ar‐
33       chive  onto the standard output.  A typical way to generate the list of
34       filenames is with the find command; you should  give  find  the  -depth
35       option  to  minimize  problems with permissions on directories that are
36       unreadable.  see “Options”.
37
38       cpio {-o|--create} [-0acvABLV] [-C bytes] [-H format] [-D DIR] [-M mes‐
39       sage]    [-O    [[user@]host:]archive]    [-F    [[user@]host:]archive]
40       [--file=[[user@]host:]archive]    [--format=format]    [--warning=FLAG]
41       [--message=message][--null]  [--reset-access-time]  [--verbose] [--dot]
42       [--append]  [--block-size=blocks]   [--dereference]   [--io-size=bytes]
43       [--rsh-command=command]   [--license]  [--usage] [--help] [--version] <
44       name-list [> archive]
45
46       Copy-in mode
47
48       In copy-in mode, cpio copies files out of an archive or lists  the  ar‐
49       chive  contents.   It  reads  the archive from the standard input.  Any
50       non-option command line arguments are  shell  globbing  patterns;  only
51       files  in  the  archive whose names match one or more of those patterns
52       are copied from the archive.  Unlike in the shell, an initial `.' in  a
53       filename  does match a wildcard at the start of a pattern, and a `/' in
54       a filename can match wildcards.  If no patterns are  given,  all  files
55       are extracted.  see “Options”.
56
57       cpio  {-i|--extract} [-bcdfmnrtsuvBSV] [-C bytes] [-E file] [-H format]
58       [-D DIR] [-M message] [-R [user][:.][group]] [-I [[user@]host:]archive]
59       [-F   [[user@]host:]archive]   [--file=[[user@]host:]archive]  [--make-
60       directories] [--nonmatching] [--preserve-modification-time] [--numeric-
61       uid-gid]   [--rename]   [-t|--list]   [--swap-bytes]  [--swap]  [--dot]
62       [--warning=FLAG]  [--unconditional]  [--verbose]  [--block-size=blocks]
63       [--swap-halfwords]   [--io-size=bytes]   [--pattern-file=file]  [--for‐
64       mat=format] [--owner=[user][:.][group]]  [--no-preserve-owner]  [--mes‐
65       sage=message]    [--force-local]   [--no-absolute-filenames]   [--abso‐
66       lute-filenames] [--sparse] [--only-verify-crc] [--to-stdout]  [--quiet]
67       [--ignore-devno]  [--renumber-inodes]  [--device-independent] [--repro‐
68       ducible] [--rsh-command=command] [--license] [--usage] [--help] [--ver‐
69       sion] [pattern...] [< archive]
70
71       Copy-pass mode
72
73       In  copy-pass  mode,  cpio  copies  files  from  one  directory tree to
74       another, combining the copy-out  and  copy-in  steps  without  actually
75       using an archive.  It reads the list of files to copy from the standard
76       input; the directory into which it will copy them is given  as  a  non-
77       option argument.  see “Options”.
78
79       cpio  {-p|--pass-through}  [-0adlmuvLV] [-R [user][:.][group]] [-D DIR]
80       [--null] [--reset-access-time] [--make-directories] [--link]  [--quiet]
81       [--preserve-modification-time]  [--unconditional]  [--verbose]  [--dot]
82       [--warning=FLAG] [--dereference] [--owner=[user][:.][group]] [--no-pre‐
83       serve-owner]  [--sparse]   [--license]  [--usage]  [--help] [--version]
84       destination-directory < name-list
85

DESCRIPTION

87       GNU cpio is a tool for creating and  extracting  archives,  or  copying
88       files  from  one place to another.  It handles a number of cpio formats
89       as well as reading and writing tar files.
90
91       Following archive formats are supported: binary, old ASCII, new  ASCII,
92       crc,  HPUX  binary,  HPUX old ASCII, old tar, and POSIX.1 tar.  The tar
93       format is provided for compatibility with the tar program. By  default,
94       cpio  creates binary format archives, for compatibility with older cpio
95       programs.  When extracting from archives, cpio automatically recognizes
96       which  kind  of  archive it is reading and can read archives created on
97       machines with a different byte-order.
98
99   Main operation mode:
100       -i, --extract
101              Extract files from an archive (run in copy-in mode)
102
103       -o, --create
104              Create the archive (run in copy-out mode)
105
106       -p, --pass-through
107              Run in copy-pass mode
108
109       -t, --list
110              Print a table of contents of the input
111
112   Operation modifiers valid in any mode:
113       --block-size=BLOCK-SIZE
114              Set the I/O block size to BLOCK-SIZE * 512 bytes
115
116       -B     Set the I/O block size to 5120 bytes.  Initially the block  size
117              is 512 bytes.
118
119       -c     Identical  to  "-H newc", use the new (SVR4) portable format. If
120              you wish the old portable (ASCII) archive format, use  "-H  odc"
121              instead.
122
123       -C, --io-size=NUMBER
124              Set the I/O block size to the given NUMBER of bytes
125
126       -D, --directory=DIR
127              Change to directory DIR
128
129       --force-local
130              With  -F,  -I,  or  -O, take the archive file name to be a local
131              file even if it contains a colon, which would  ordinarily  indi‐
132              cate a remote host name.
133
134       -H, --format=FORMAT
135              Use  given  archive FORMAT.  The valid formats are listed below;
136              the same names are also recognized in all-caps.  The default  in
137              copy-in  mode is to automatically detect the archive format, and
138              in copy-out mode is `bin'.
139
140       `bin'  The obsolete binary format.
141
142       `odc'  The old (POSIX.1) portable format.
143
144       `newc' The new (SVR4) portable format, which supports file systems hav‐
145              ing more than 65536 i-nodes.
146
147       `crc'  The new (SVR4) portable format with a checksum (Sum32) added.
148
149       `tar'  The old tar format.
150
151       `ustar'
152              The POSIX.1 tar format.  Also recognizes GNU tar archives, which
153              are similar but not identical.
154
155       `hpbin'
156              The obsolete binary format used by  HPUX's  cpio  (which  stores
157              device files differently).
158
159       `hpodc'
160              The  portable  format  used  by HPUX's cpio (which stores device
161              files differently).
162
163       --quiet
164              Do not print the number of blocks copied
165
166       -R, --owner=[USER][:.][GROUP]
167              Set the ownership of all files created  to  the  specified  USER
168              and/or  GROUP.   Either  the  user,  the group, or both, must be
169              present.  If the group is omitted but the “:” or  “.”  separator
170              is given, use the given user's login group.  Only the super-user
171              can change files' ownership in copy-in mode.
172
173       -v, --verbose
174              List the files processed, or with `-t', give an  `ls  -l'  style
175              table  of contents listing.  In a verbose table of contents of a
176              ustar archive, user and group names in the archive that  do  not
177              exist  on the local system are replaced by the names that corre‐
178              spond locally to the numeric UID and GID stored in the archive.
179
180       -V, --dot
181              Print a "." for each file processed
182
183       -W, --warning=FLAG
184              Control warning display. Currently FLAG is one of 'none', 'trun‐
185              cate', 'all'. Multiple options accumulate.
186
187   Operation modifiers valid in copy-in and copy-out modes:
188       -F, --file=[[USER@]HOST:]FILE-NAME
189              Use this FILE-NAME instead of standard input or output. Optional
190              USER and HOST specify the user and  host  names  in  case  of  a
191              remote archive
192
193       -M, --message=STRING
194              Print  STRING when the end of a volume of the backup media (such
195              as a tape or a floppy disk) is reached, to prompt  the  user  to
196              insert  a new volume.  If STRING contains the string “%d”, it is
197              replaced by the current volume number (starting at 1).
198
199       --rsh-command=COMMAND
200              Use COMMAND instead of rsh (typically /usr/bin/ssh)
201
202   Operation modifiers valid only in copy-in mode:
203       -b, --swap
204              Swap both halfwords of words and bytes of halfwords in the data.
205              Equivalent  to  -sS  Use  this option to convert 32-bit integers
206              between big-endian and little-endian machines.
207
208       -f, --nonmatching
209              Only copy files that do not match any of the given patterns
210
211       -I [[USER@]HOST:]FILE-NAME
212              Archive filename to use instead  of  standard  input.   Optional
213              USER  and  HOST  specify  the  user  and host names in case of a
214              remote archive
215
216       -n, --numeric-uid-gid
217              In the verbose table of contents listing, show numeric  UID  and
218              GID
219
220       -r, --rename
221              Interactively rename files
222
223       -s, --swap-bytes
224              Swap the bytes of each halfword in the files
225
226       -S, --swap-halfwords
227              Swap the halfwords of each word (4 bytes) in the files
228
229       --to-stdout
230              Extract files to standard output
231
232       -E, --pattern-file=FILE
233              Read additional patterns specifying filenames to extract or list
234              from FILE
235
236       --only-verify-crc
237              When reading a CRC format archive, only verify the  checksum  of
238              each file in the archive, don't actually extract the files
239
240   Operation modifiers valid only in copy-out mode:
241       -A, --append
242              Append  to an existing archive.  The archive must be a disk file
243              specified with the -O or -F (-file) option.
244
245       --device-independent, --reproducible
246              Create device-independent (reproducible) archives
247
248       --ignore-devno
249              Don't store device numbers
250
251       -O [[USER@]HOST:]FILE-NAME
252              Archive filename to use instead  of  standard  output.  Optional
253              USER  and  HOST  specify  the  user  and host names in case of a
254              remote archive
255
256       --renumber-inodes
257              Renumber inodes
258
259   Operation modifiers valid only in copy-pass mode:
260       -l, --link
261              Link files instead of copying them, when possible
262
263   Operation modifiers valid in copy-in and copy-out modes:
264       --absolute-filenames
265              Do not strip file system prefix components from the file names
266
267       --no-absolute-filenames
268              Create all files relative to the current directory
269
270   Operation modifiers valid in copy-out and copy-pass modes:
271       -0, --null
272              Filenames in the list are delimited by null  characters  instead
273              of  newlines,  so that files whose names contain newlines can be
274              archived.  GNU find is one way to produce a list of  null-termi‐
275              nated filenames.
276
277       -a, --reset-access-time
278              Reset  the  access times of files after reading them, so that it
279              does not look like they have just been read.
280
281       -L, --dereference
282              Dereference  symbolic  links  (copy  the files that  they  point
283              to instead of copying the links).
284
285   Operation modifiers valid in copy-in and copy-pass modes:
286       -d, --make-directories
287              Create leading directories where needed
288
289       -m, --preserve-modification-time
290              Retain previous file modification times when creating files
291
292       --no-preserve-owner
293              Do  not  change  the ownership of the files; leave them owned by
294              the user extracting them.  This  is  the  default  for  non-root
295              users,  so  that users on System V don't inadvertently give away
296              files.  This option can be used in copy-in  mode  and  copy-pass
297              mode
298
299       --sparse
300              Write files with large blocks of zeros as sparse files
301
302       -u, --unconditional
303              Replace all files unconditionally
304
305       -?, --help
306              give this help list
307
308       --usage
309              give a short usage message
310
311       --version
312              print program version
313
314       Mandatory  or  optional arguments to long options are also mandatory or
315       optional for any corresponding short options.
316
317

EXAMPLES

319       When creating an archive, cpio takes the list of files to be  processed
320       from  the  standard  input,  and then sends the archive to the standard
321       output, or to the device defined by the `-F' option.  Usually  find  or
322       ls  is used to provide this list to the standard input.  In the follow‐
323       ing example you can see the possibilities for archiving the contents of
324       a single directory.
325
326       % ls | cpio -ov > directory.cpio
327
328       The  `-o'  option  creates  the archive, and the `-v' option prints the
329       names of the files archived as they are added.  Notice that the options
330       can  be  put together after a single `-' or can be placed separately on
331       the command line.  The `>'  redirects  the  cpio  output  to  the  file
332       `directory.cpio'.
333
334       If you wanted to archive an entire directory tree, the find command can
335       provide the file list to cpio:
336
337       % find . -print -depth | cpio -ov > tree.cpio
338
339       This will take all the files in the current directory, the  directories
340       below  and place them in the archive tree.cpio.  Again the `-o' creates
341       an archive, and the `-v' option shows you the name of the files as they
342       are  archived.   see “Copy-out mode”.  Using the `.' in the find state‐
343       ment will give you more flexibility when doing  restores,  as  it  will
344       save  file names with a relative path vice a hard wired, absolute path.
345       The `-depth' option forces `find' to print of the entries in  a  direc‐
346       tory  before printing the directory itself.  This limits the effects of
347       restrictive directory permissions by printing the directory entries  in
348       a directory before the directory name itself.
349
350       Extracting an archive requires a bit more thought because cpio will not
351       create directories by default.  Another characteristic, is it will  not
352       overwrite existing files unless you tell it to.
353
354       % cpio -iv < directory.cpio
355
356       This  will  retrieve  the files archived in the file directory.cpio and
357       place them in the present directory.  The `-i' option extracts the  ar‐
358       chive  and the `-v' shows the file names as they are extracted.  If you
359       are dealing with an archived directory tree, you need to use  the  `-d'
360       option to create directories as necessary, something like:
361
362       % cpio -idv < tree.cpio
363
364       This  will take the contents of the archive tree.cpio and extract it to
365       the current directory.  If you try to extract the files on top of files
366       of the same name that already exist (and have the same or later modifi‐
367       cation time) cpio will not extract the file unless told to do so by the
368       -u option.  see “Copy-in mode”.
369
370       In  copy-pass  mode,  cpio  copies  files  from  one  directory tree to
371       another, combining the copy-out  and  copy-in  steps  without  actually
372       using an archive.  It reads the list of files to copy from the standard
373       input; the directory into which it will copy them is given  as  a  non-
374       option argument.  see “Copy-pass mode”.
375
376       % find . -depth -print0 | cpio --null -pvd new-dir
377
378       The  example shows copying the files of the present directory, and sub-
379       directories to a new directory called new-dir.  Some  new  options  are
380       the  `-print0'  available  with  GNU  find,  combined with the `--null'
381       option of cpio.  These two options act  together  to  send  file  names
382       between  find  and cpio, even if special characters are embedded in the
383       file names.  Another is `-p', which tells cpio to  pass  the  files  it
384       finds to the directory `new-dir'.
385
386
387

AUTHOR

389       Written  by  Phil  Nelson,  David  MacKenzie, John Oleynick, and Sergey
390       Poznyakoff.
391

REPORTING BUGS

393       Report bugs to <bug-cpio@gnu.org>.  Report bugs in this manual page via
394       https://bugzilla.redhat.com.
395
397       Copyright  ©  2015  Free Software Foundation, Inc.  License GPLv3+: GNU
398       GPL version 3 or later <http://gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html>.
399       This is free software: you are free  to  change  and  redistribute  it.
400       There is NO WARRANTY, to the extent permitted by law.
401

SEE ALSO

403       The  full documentation for cpio is maintained as a Texinfo manual.  If
404       the info and cpio programs are properly installed  at  your  site,  the
405       command
406
407              info cpio
408
409       should give you access to the complete manual.
410
411       The  online  copy  of  the  documentation is available at the following
412       address:
413
414       http://www.gnu.org/software/cpio/manual
415
416
417
418                                                                      CPIO(1L)
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