cpio: Options
1
1 3.4 Options
1 ===========
1
1 This section summarizes all available command line options. References
1 in square brackets after each option indicate 'cpio' modes in which this
1 option is valid.
1
1 '-0'
1 '--null'
1 [⇒copy-in,⇒copy-out,⇒copy-pass]
1 Read a list of filenames terminated by a null character, instead of
1 a newline, so that files whose names contain newlines can be
1 archived. GNU find is one way to produce a list of null-terminated
1 filenames. This option may be used in copy-out and copy-pass
1 modes.
1
1 '-a'
1 '--reset-access-time'
1 [⇒copy-out,⇒copy-pass]
1 Reset the access times of files after reading them, so that it does
1 not look like they have just been read.
1
1 '-A'
1 '--append'
1 [⇒copy-out]
1 Append to an existing archive. Only works in copy-out mode. The
1 archive must be a disk file specified with the '-O' or '-F'
1 ('--file') option.
1
1 '-b'
1 '--swap'
1 [⇒copy-in]
1 Swap both halfwords of words and bytes of halfwords in the data.
1 Equivalent to '-sS'. This option may be used in copy-in mode. Use
1 this option to convert 32-bit integers between big-endian and
1 little-endian machines.
1
1 '-B'
1 [⇒copy-in,⇒copy-out,⇒copy-pass]
1 Set the I/O block size to 5120 bytes. Initially the block size is
1 512 bytes.
1
1 '--block-size=BLOCK-SIZE'
1 [⇒copy-in,⇒copy-out,⇒copy-pass]
1 Set the I/O block size to BLOCK-SIZE * 512 bytes.
1
1 '-c'
1 [⇒copy-in,⇒copy-out,⇒copy-pass]
1 Identical to "-H newc", use the new (SVR4) portable format. If you
1 wish the old portable (ASCII) archive format, use "-H odc" instead.
1
1 '-C IO-SIZE'
1 '--io-size=IO-SIZE'
1 [⇒copy-in,⇒copy-out,⇒copy-pass]
1 Set the I/O block size to IO-SIZE bytes.
1
1 '-d'
1 '--make-directories'
1 [⇒copy-in,⇒copy-pass]
1 Create leading directories where needed.
1
1 '-D DIR'
1 '--directory=DIR'
1 [⇒copy-in,⇒copy-out,⇒copy-pass]
1 Change to the directory DIR before starting the operation. This
1 can be used, for example, to extract an archive contents in a
1 different directory:
1
1 $ cpio -i -D /usr/local < archive
1
1 or to copy-pass files from one directory to another:
1
1 $ cpio -D /usr/bin -p /usr/local/bin < filelist
1
1 The '-D' option does not affect file names supplied as arguments to
1 another command line options, such as '-F' or '-E'. For example,
1 the following invocation:
1
1 cpio -D /tmp/foo -d -i -F arc
1
1 instructs 'cpio' to open the archive file 'arc' in the current
1 working directory, then change to the directory '/tmp/foo' and
1 extract files to that directory. If '/tmp/foo' does not exist, it
1 will be created first (the '-d' option) and then changed to.
1
1 '-E FILE'
1 '--pattern-file=FILE'
1 [⇒copy-in]
1 Read additional patterns specifying filenames to extract or list
1 from FILE. The lines of FILE are treated as if they had been
1 non-option arguments to cpio. This option is used in copy-in mode,
1
1 '-f'
1 '--nonmatching'
1 [⇒copy-in]
1 Only copy files that do not match any of the given patterns.
1
1 '-F ARCHIVE'
1 '--file=ARCHIVE'
1 [⇒copy-in,⇒copy-out]
1 Archive filename to use instead of standard input or output. To
1 use a tape drive on another machine as the archive, use a filename
1 that starts with 'HOSTNAME:', where HOSTNAME is the name or IP
1 address of the machine. The hostname can be preceded by a username
1 and an '@' to access the remote tape drive as that user, if you
1 have permission to do so (typically an entry in that user's
1 '~/.rhosts' file).
1
1 '--force-local'
1 [⇒copy-in,⇒copy-out]
1 With '-F', '-I', or '-O', take the archive file name to be a local
1 file even if it contains a colon, which would ordinarily indicate a
1 remote host name.
1
1 '-H FORMAT'
1 '--format=FORMAT'
1 [⇒copy-in,⇒copy-out,⇒copy-pass]
1 Use archive format FORMAT. The valid formats are listed below with
1 file size limits for individual files in parentheses; the same
1 names are also recognized in all-caps. The default in copy-in mode
1 is to automatically detect the archive format, and in copy-out mode
1 is 'bin'.
1
1 'bin'
1 The obsolete binary format. (2147483647 bytes)
1
1 'odc'
1 The old (POSIX.1) portable format. (8589934591 bytes)
1
1 'newc'
1 The new (SVR4) portable format, which supports file systems
1 having more than 65536 i-nodes. (4294967295 bytes)
1
1 'crc'
1 The new (SVR4) portable format with a checksum added.
1
1 'tar'
1 The old tar format. (8589934591 bytes)
1
1 'ustar'
1 The POSIX.1 tar format. Also recognizes GNU tar archives,
1 which are similar but not identical. (8589934591 bytes)
1
1 'hpbin'
1 The obsolete binary format used by HPUX's cpio (which stores
1 device files differently).
1
1 'hpodc'
1 The portable format used by HPUX's cpio (which stores device
1 files differently).
1
1 '-i'
1 '--extract'
1 Run in copy-in mode. ⇒Copy-in mode.
1
1 '-I ARCHIVE'
1 [⇒copy-in]
1 Archive filename to use instead of standard input. To use a tape
1 drive on another machine as the archive, use a filename that starts
1 with 'HOSTNAME:', where HOSTNAME is the name or IP address of the
1 remote host. The hostname can be preceded by a username and an '@'
1 to access the remote tape drive as that user, if you have
1 permission to do so (typically an entry in that user's '~/.rhosts'
1 file).
1
1 '-l'
1 '--link'
1 [⇒copy-pass]
1 Link files instead of copying them, when possible.
1
1 '-L'
1 '--dereference'
1 [⇒copy-in,⇒copy-pass]
1 Copy the file that a symbolic link points to, rather than the
1 symbolic link itself.
1
1 '-m'
1 '--preserve-modification-time'
1 [⇒copy-in,⇒copy-pass]
1 Retain previous file modification times when creating files.
1
1 '-M MESSAGE'
1 '--message=MESSAGE'
1 [⇒copy-in,⇒copy-out]
1 Print MESSAGE when the end of a volume of the backup media (such as
1 a tape or a floppy disk) is reached, to prompt the user to insert a
1 new volume. If MESSAGE contains the string '%d', it is replaced by
1 the current volume number (starting at 1).
1
1 '-n'
1 '--numeric-uid-gid'
1 [⇒copy-in]
1 Show numeric UID and GID instead of translating them into names
1 when using the '--verbose' option.
1
1 '--no-absolute-filenames'
1 [⇒copy-in,⇒copy-out]
1 Create all files relative to the current directory in copy-in mode,
1 even if they have an absolute file name in the archive.
1
1 '--no-preserve-owner'
1 [⇒copy-in,⇒copy-pass]
1 Do not change the ownership of the files; leave them owned by the
1 user extracting them. This is the default for non-root users, so
1 that users on System V don't inadvertantly give away files. This
1 option can be used in copy-in mode and copy-pass mode
1
1 '-o'
1 '--create'
1 Run in copy-out mode. ⇒Copy-out mode.
1
1 '-O ARCHIVE'
1 [⇒copy-out]
1 Archive filename to use instead of standard output. To use a tape
1 drive on another machine as the archive, use a filename that starts
1 with 'HOSTNAME:', where HOSTNAME is the name or IP address of the
1 machine. The hostname can be preceded by a username and an '@' to
1 access the remote tape drive as that user, if you have permission
1 to do so (typically an entry in that user's '~/.rhosts' file).
1
1 '--only-verify-crc'
1 [⇒copy-in]
1 Verify the CRC's of each file in the archive, when reading a CRC
1 format archive. Don't actually extract the files.
1
1 '-p'
1 '--pass-through'
1 Run in copy-pass mode. ⇒Copy-pass mode.
1
1 '--quiet'
1 [⇒copy-in,⇒copy-out,⇒copy-pass]
1 Do not print the number of blocks copied.
1
1 '-r'
1 '--rename'
1 [⇒copy-in]
1 Interactively rename files.
1
1 '-R OWNER'
1 '--owner OWNER'
1 [⇒copy-in,⇒copy-out,⇒copy-pass]
1 In copy-in and copy-pass mode, set the ownership of all files
1 created to the specified OWNER (this operation is allowed only for
1 the super-user). In copy-out mode, store the supplied owner
1 information in the archive.
1
1 The argument can be either the user name or the user name and group
1 name, separated by a dot or a colon, or the group name, preceeded
1 by a dot or a colon, as shown in the examples below:
1
1 cpio --owner smith
1 cpio --owner smith:
1 cpio --owner smith:users
1 cpio --owner :users
1
1 The argument parts are first looked up in the system user and group
1 databases, correspondingly. If any of them is not found there, it
1 is treated as numeric UID or GID, provided that it consists of
1 decimal digits only.
1
1 To avoid the lookup and ensure that arguments are treated as
1 numeric values, prefix them with a plus sign, e.g.:
1
1 cpio --owner +0
1 cpio --owner +0:
1 cpio --owner +0:+0
1 cpio --owner :+0
1
1 If the group is omitted but the ':' or '.' separator is given, as
1 in the second example. the given user's login group will be used.
1
1 '--rsh-command=COMMAND'
1 [⇒copy-in,⇒copy-out,⇒copy-pass]
1 Notifies cpio that is should use COMMAND to communicate with remote
1 devices.
1
1 '-s'
1 '--swap-bytes'
1 [⇒copy-in]
1 Swap the bytes of each halfword (pair of bytes) in the files. This
1 option can be used in copy-in mode.
1
1 '-S'
1 '--swap-halfwords'
1 [⇒copy-in]
1 Swap the halfwords of each word (4 bytes) in the files. This
1 option may be used in copy-in mode.
1
1 '--sparse'
1 [⇒copy-in,⇒copy-pass]
1 Write files with large blocks of zeros as sparse files. This
1 option is used in copy-in and copy-pass modes.
1
1 '-t'
1 '--list'
1 [⇒copy-in]
1 Print a table of contents of the input. Can be used alone, as a
1 mode designator, in which case '-i' is implied.
1
1 '--to-stdout'
1 [⇒copy-in]
1 Extract files to standard output. This option may be used in
1 copy-in mode.
1
1 '-u'
1 '--unconditional'
1 [⇒copy-in,⇒copy-pass]
1 Replace all files, without asking whether to replace existing newer
1 files with older files.
1
1 '-v'
1 '--verbose'
1 [⇒copy-in,⇒copy-out,⇒copy-pass]
1 List the files processed, or with '-t', give an 'ls -l' style table
1 of contents listing. In a verbose table of contents of a ustar
1 archive, user and group names in the archive that do not exist on
1 the local system are replaced by the names that correspond locally
1 to the numeric UID and GID stored in the archive.
1
1 '-V'
1 '--dot'
1 [⇒copy-in,⇒copy-out,⇒copy-pass]
1 Print a '.' for each file processed.
1
1 '--version'
1 Print the cpio program version number and exit.
1
1 '-W'
1 '--warning=FLAG'
1 [⇒copy-in,⇒copy-out,⇒copy-pass]
1 Control warning display. The argument is one of the following:
1
1 none
1 Disable all warnings.
1 all
1 Enable all warnings.
1 truncate
1 Warn about truncation of file header fields.
1 no-truncate
1 Disable truncation warnings.
1