Provided by: libarchive-tools_3.4.0-2ubuntu1.5_amd64 
NAME
cpio — copy files to and from archives
SYNOPSIS
cpio -i [options] [pattern ...] [< archive]
cpio -o [options] < name-list [> archive]
cpio -p [options] dest-dir < name-list
DESCRIPTION
cpio copies files between archives and directories. This implementation can extract from tar, pax, cpio,
zip, jar, ar, and ISO 9660 cdrom images and can create tar, pax, cpio, ar, and shar archives.
The first option to cpio is a mode indicator from the following list:
-i Input. Read an archive from standard input (unless overridden) and extract the contents to disk
or (if the -t option is specified) list the contents to standard output. If one or more file
patterns are specified, only files matching one of the patterns will be extracted.
-o Output. Read a list of filenames from standard input and produce a new archive on standard
output (unless overridden) containing the specified items.
-p Pass-through. Read a list of filenames from standard input and copy the files to the specified
directory.
OPTIONS
Unless specifically stated otherwise, options are applicable in all operating modes.
-0, --null
Read filenames separated by NUL characters instead of newlines. This is necessary if any of the
filenames being read might contain newlines.
-A (o mode only) Append to the specified archive. (Not yet implemented.)
-a (o and p modes) Reset access times on files after they are read.
-B (o mode only) Block output to records of 5120 bytes.
-C size
(o mode only) Block output to records of size bytes.
-c (o mode only) Use the old POSIX portable character format. Equivalent to --format odc.
-d, --make-directories
(i and p modes) Create directories as necessary.
-E file
(i mode only) Read list of file name patterns from file to list and extract.
-F file, --file file
Read archive from or write archive to file.
-f pattern
(i mode only) Ignore files that match pattern.
-H format, --format format
(o mode only) Produce the output archive in the specified format. Supported formats include:
cpio Synonym for odc.
newc The SVR4 portable cpio format.
odc The old POSIX.1 portable octet-oriented cpio format.
pax The POSIX.1 pax format, an extension of the ustar format.
ustar The POSIX.1 tar format.
The default format is odc. See libarchive-formats(5) for more complete information about the
formats currently supported by the underlying libarchive(3) library.
-h, --help
Print usage information.
-I file
Read archive from file.
-i, --extract
Input mode. See above for description.
--insecure
(i and p mode only) Disable security checks during extraction or copying. This allows extraction
via symbolic links, absolute paths, and path names containing ‘..’ in the name.
-J, --xz
(o mode only) Compress the file with xz-compatible compression before writing it. In input mode,
this option is ignored; xz compression is recognized automatically on input.
-j Synonym for -y.
-L (o and p modes) All symbolic links will be followed. Normally, symbolic links are archived and
copied as symbolic links. With this option, the target of the link will be archived or copied
instead.
-l, --link
(p mode only) Create links from the target directory to the original files, instead of copying.
--lrzip
(o mode only) Compress the resulting archive with lrzip(1). In input mode, this option is
ignored.
--lz4 (o mode only) Compress the archive with lz4-compatible compression before writing it. In input
mode, this option is ignored; lz4 compression is recognized automatically on input.
--zstd (o mode only) Compress the archive with zstd-compatible compression before writing it. In input
mode, this option is ignored; zstd compression is recognized automatically on input.
--lzma (o mode only) Compress the file with lzma-compatible compression before writing it. In input
mode, this option is ignored; lzma compression is recognized automatically on input.
--lzop (o mode only) Compress the resulting archive with lzop(1). In input mode, this option is
ignored.
--passphrase passphrase
The passphrase is used to extract or create an encrypted archive. Currently, zip is only a
format that cpio can handle encrypted archives. You shouldn't use this option unless you realize
how insecure use of this option is.
-m, --preserve-modification-time
(i and p modes) Set file modification time on created files to match those in the source.
-n, --numeric-uid-gid
(i mode, only with -t) Display numeric uid and gid. By default, cpio displays the user and group
names when they are provided in the archive, or looks up the user and group names in the system
password database.
--no-preserve-owner
(i mode only) Do not attempt to restore file ownership. This is the default when run by non-root
users.
-O file
Write archive to file.
-o, --create
Output mode. See above for description.
-p, --pass-through
Pass-through mode. See above for description.
--preserve-owner
(i mode only) Restore file ownership. This is the default when run by the root user.
--quiet
Suppress unnecessary messages.
-R [user][:][group], --owner [user][:][group]
Set the owner and/or group on files in the output. If group is specified with no user (for
example, -R :wheel) then the group will be set but not the user. If the user is specified with a
trailing colon and no group (for example, -R root:) then the group will be set to the user's
default group. If the user is specified with no trailing colon, then the user will be set but
not the group. In -i and -p modes, this option can only be used by the super-user. (For
compatibility, a period can be used in place of the colon.)
-r (All modes.) Rename files interactively. For each file, a prompt is written to /dev/tty
containing the name of the file and a line is read from /dev/tty. If the line read is blank, the
file is skipped. If the line contains a single period, the file is processed normally.
Otherwise, the line is taken to be the new name of the file.
-t, --list
(i mode only) List the contents of the archive to stdout; do not restore the contents to disk.
-u, --unconditional
(i and p modes) Unconditionally overwrite existing files. Ordinarily, an older file will not
overwrite a newer file on disk.
-V, --dot
Print a dot to stderr for each file as it is processed. Superseded by -v.
-v, --verbose
Print the name of each file to stderr as it is processed. With -t, provide a detailed listing of
each file.
--version
Print the program version information and exit.
-y (o mode only) Compress the archive with bzip2-compatible compression before writing it. In input
mode, this option is ignored; bzip2 compression is recognized automatically on input.
-Z (o mode only) Compress the archive with compress-compatible compression before writing it. In
input mode, this option is ignored; compression is recognized automatically on input.
-z (o mode only) Compress the archive with gzip-compatible compression before writing it. In input
mode, this option is ignored; gzip compression is recognized automatically on input.
EXIT STATUS
The cpio utility exits 0 on success, and >0 if an error occurs.
ENVIRONMENT
The following environment variables affect the execution of cpio:
LANG The locale to use. See environ(7) for more information.
TZ The timezone to use when displaying dates. See environ(7) for more information.
EXAMPLES
The cpio command is traditionally used to copy file hierarchies in conjunction with the find(1) command.
The first example here simply copies all files from src to dest:
find src | cpio -pmud dest
By carefully selecting options to the find(1) command and combining it with other standard utilities, it
is possible to exercise very fine control over which files are copied. This next example copies files
from src to dest that are more than 2 days old and whose names match a particular pattern:
find src -mtime +2 | grep foo[bar] | cpio -pdmu dest
This example copies files from src to dest that are more than 2 days old and which contain the word
“foobar”:
find src -mtime +2 | xargs grep -l foobar | cpio -pdmu dest
COMPATIBILITY
The mode options i, o, and p and the options a, B, c, d, f, l, m, r, t, u, and v comply with SUSv2.
The old POSIX.1 standard specified that only -i, -o, and -p were interpreted as command-line options.
Each took a single argument of a list of modifier characters. For example, the standard syntax allows
-imu but does not support -miu or -i -m -u, since m and u are only modifiers to -i, they are not command-
line options in their own right. The syntax supported by this implementation is backwards-compatible
with the standard. For best compatibility, scripts should limit themselves to the standard syntax.
SEE ALSO
bzip2(1), tar(1), gzip(1), mt(1), pax(1), libarchive(3), cpio(5), libarchive-formats(5), tar(5)
STANDARDS
There is no current POSIX standard for the cpio command; it appeared in ISO/IEC 9945-1:1996 (“POSIX.1”)
but was dropped from IEEE Std 1003.1-2001 (“POSIX.1”).
The cpio, ustar, and pax interchange file formats are defined by IEEE Std 1003.1-2001 (“POSIX.1”) for the
pax command.
HISTORY
The original cpio and find utilities were written by Dick Haight while working in AT&T's Unix Support
Group. They first appeared in 1977 in PWB/UNIX 1.0, the “Programmer's Work Bench” system developed for
use within AT&T. They were first released outside of AT&T as part of System III Unix in 1981. As a
result, cpio actually predates tar, even though it was not well-known outside of AT&T until some time
later.
This is a complete re-implementation based on the libarchive(3) library.
BUGS
The cpio archive format has several basic limitations: It does not store user and group names, only
numbers. As a result, it cannot be reliably used to transfer files between systems with dissimilar user
and group numbering. Older cpio formats limit the user and group numbers to 16 or 18 bits, which is
insufficient for modern systems. The cpio archive formats cannot support files over 4 gigabytes, except
for the “odc” variant, which can support files up to 8 gigabytes.
Debian September 16, 2014 CPIO(1)