CPIO(1) CPIO(1)
NAME
cpio - copy file archives in and out
SYNOPSIS
cpio -o[acBHLv]
cpio -o[acvBHL] -Ocollection < namelist
cpio -i[BHLcdmrtuvfsSb6] [ patterns ]
cpio -i[cdmrstuvfB6HL] -Icollection [Pattern]
cpio -p[adlmuvHL] directory
DESCRIPTION
cpio -o (copy out) reads the standard input to obtain a list
of path names and copies those files onto the standard
output together with path name and status information.
Output is padded to a 512-byte boundary.
cpio -i (copy in) extracts files from the standard input,
which is assumed to be the product of a previous cpio -o.
Only files with names that match patterns are selected.
Patterns are regular expressions given in the name-
generating notation of sh(1). In patterns, meta-characters
?, *, and [...] match the slash / character. Multiple
patterns may be specified and if no patterns are specified,
the default for patterns is * (i.e., select all files).
Each pattern should be surrounded by double quotes. The
extracted files are conditionally created and copied into
the current directory tree based upon the options described
below. The permissions of the files will be those of the
previous cpio -o. The owner and group of the files will be
that of the current user unless the user is super-user,
which causes cpio to retain the owner and group of the files
of the previous cpio -o. NOTE: If cpio -i tries to create a
file that already exists and the existing file is the same
age or newer, cpio will output a warning message and not
replace the file. (The -u option can be used to
unconditionally overwrite the existing file.)
cpio -p (pass) reads the standard input to obtain a list of
path names of files that are conditionally created and
copied into the destination directory tree based upon the
options described below.
The meanings of the available options are
a Reset access times of input files after they have been
copied. Access times are not reset for linked files
when cpio -pla is specified.
B Input/output is to be blocked 5,120 bytes to the record
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CPIO(1) CPIO(1)
(does not apply to the pass option; meaningful only
with data directed to or from a character special
device, e.g. /dev/rmt/0m.
H Don't follow symbolic links. This option is meaningful
only with the o or p option. Symbolic links, if any,
are copied out as such. This is the default.
L Follow symbolic links. This option is meaningful only
with the o or p option. If symbolic links are
encountered, the referenced files, rather than the
symbolic links, are copied out.
I Input to be read from the specified device.
O Output to be stored in the specified device.
d Directories are to be created as needed.
c Write header information in ASCII character form for
portability. Always use this option when origin and
destination machines are different types.
r Interactively rename files. If the user types a null
line, the file is skipped. (Not available with cpio
-p.)
t Print a table of contents of the input. No files are
created.
u Copy unconditionally (normally, an older file will not
replace a newer file with the same name).
v Verbose: causes a list of file names to be printed.
When used with the t option, the table of contents
looks like the output of an ls -l command (see ls(1)).
l Whenever possible, link files rather than copying them.
Usable only with the -p option.
m Retain previous file modification time. This option is
ineffective on directories that are being copied.
f Copy in all files except those in patterns.
s Swap bytes within each half word. Use only with the -i
option.
S Swap halfwords within each word. Use only with the -i
option.
b Reverses the order of the bytes within each word. Use
only with the -i option.
6 Process an old (i.e. UNIX System Sixth Edition format)
file. Only useful with -i (copy in).
NOTE: cpio assumes four-byte words.
If cpio reaches end of medium (end of a diskette for
example), when writing to (-o) or reading from (-i) a
character special device, cpio will print the message:
If you want to go on, type device/file name when ready.
To continue, you must replace the medium and type the
character special device name (/dev/rdiskette for example)
and carriage return. You may want to continue by directing
cpio to use a different device. For example, if you have
two floppy drives you may want to switch between them so
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CPIO(1) CPIO(1)
cpio can proceed while you are changing the floppies. (A
carriage return alone causes the cpio process to exit.)
EXAMPLES
The following examples show three uses of cpio.
When standard input is directed through a pipe to cpio -o,
it groups the files so they can be directed (>) to a single
file (../newfile). Instead of "ls," you could use find,
echo, cat, etc. to pipe a list of names to cpio. You could
direct the output to a device instead of a file.
ls | cpio -o >../newfile
cpio -i uses the output file of cpio -o (directed through a
pipe with cat in the example), takes out those files that
match the patterns (memo/a1, memo/b*), creates directories
below the current directory as needed (-d option), and
places the files in the appropriate directories. If no
patterns were given, all files from "newfile" would be
placed in the directory.
cat newfile | cpio -id "memo/a1" "memo/b*"
cpio -p takes the file names piped to it and copies or links
(-l option) those files to another directory on your machine
(newdir in the example). The -d options says to create
directories as needed. The -m option says retain the
modification time. (It is important to use the -depth
option of find to generate path names for cpio. This
eliminates problems cpio could have trying to create files
under read-only directories.)
find . -depth -print | cpio -pdlmv newdir
SEE ALSO
ar(1), find(1), ls(1), tar(1).
cpio(4) in the Programmer's Reference Manual.
NOTES
1) Path names are restricted to 256 characters.
2) Only the super-user can copy special files.
3) Blocks are reported in 512-byte quantities.
ORIGIN
AT&T V.3
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