1 .\" $NetBSD: pax.1,v 1.63 2013/11/14 07:45:05 wiz Exp $
3 .\" Copyright (c) 1992 Keith Muller.
4 .\" Copyright (c) 1992, 1993
5 .\" The Regents of the University of California. All rights reserved.
7 .\" This code is derived from software contributed to Berkeley by
8 .\" Keith Muller of the University of California, San Diego.
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34 .\" @(#)pax.1 8.4 (Berkeley) 4/18/94
41 .Nd read and write file archives and copy directory hierarchies
65 .Op Fl AcDdijknOuVvYZz
90 .Op Fl AdHijLMOPtuVvXz
112 .Oo /[ Cm c ] [ Cm m ] Oc
120 .Op Fl ADdHijkLlMnOPtuVvXYZz
135 .Oo /[ Cm c ] [ Cm m ] Oc
143 will read, write, and list the members of an archive file,
144 and will copy directory hierarchies.
145 If the archive file is of the form:
146 .Ar [[user@]host:]file
147 then the archive will be processed using
151 operation is independent of the specific archive format,
152 and supports a wide variety of different archive formats.
153 A list of supported archive formats can be found under the description of the
161 options specifies which of the following functional modes
164 .Em list , read , write ,
173 a table of contents of the members of the archive file read from
175 whose pathnames match the specified
177 The table of contents contains one filename per line
178 and is written using single line buffering.
182 extracts the members of the archive file read from the
184 with pathnames matching the specified
186 The archive format and blocking is automatically determined on input.
187 When an extracted file is a directory, the entire file hierarchy
188 rooted at that directory is extracted.
189 All extracted files are created relative to the current file hierarchy.
190 The setting of ownership, access and modification times, and file mode of
191 the extracted files are discussed in more detail under the
197 writes an archive containing the
201 using the specified archive format.
204 operands are specified, a list of files to copy with one per line is read from
208 operand is also a directory, the entire file hierarchy rooted
209 at that directory will be included.
215 operands to the destination
219 operands are specified, a list of files to copy with one per line is read from
224 operand is also a directory the entire file
225 hierarchy rooted at that directory will be included.
228 is as if the copied files were written to an archive file and then
229 subsequently extracted, except that there may be hard links between
230 the original and the copied files (see the
237 must not be one of the
239 operands or a member of a file hierarchy rooted at one of the
244 under these conditions is unpredictable.
247 While processing a damaged archive during a
253 will attempt to recover from media defects and will search through the archive
254 to locate and process the largest number of archive members possible (see the
256 option for more details on error handling).
260 operand specifies a destination directory pathname.
263 operand does not exist, or it is not writable by the user,
264 or it is not of type directory,
266 will exit with a non-zero exit status.
270 operand is used to select one or more pathnames of archive members.
271 Archive members are selected using the pattern matching notation described
276 operand is not supplied, all members of the archive will be selected.
279 matches a directory, the entire file hierarchy rooted at that directory will
283 operand does not select at least one archive member,
287 operands in a diagnostic message to
289 and then exit with a non-zero exit status.
293 operand specifies the pathname of a file to be copied or archived.
296 operand does not select at least one archive member,
300 operand pathnames in a diagnostic message to
302 and then exit with a non-zero exit status.
304 The following options are supported:
307 Read an archive file from
309 and extract the specified
311 If any intermediate directories are needed in order to extract an archive
312 member, these directories will be created as if
314 was called with the bitwise inclusive
317 .Dv S_IRWXU , S_IRWXG ,
320 as the mode argument.
321 When the selected archive format supports the specification of linked
322 files and these files cannot be linked while the archive is being extracted,
324 will write a diagnostic message to
326 and exit with a non-zero exit status at the completion of operation.
330 in the specified archive format.
333 operands are specified,
335 is read for a list of pathnames with one per line without any leading or
341 to the end of an archive that was previously written.
342 If an archive format is not specified with a
344 option, the format currently being used in the archive will be selected.
345 Any attempt to append to an archive in a format different from the
346 format already used in the archive will cause
349 with a non-zero exit status.
350 The blocking size used in the archive volume where writing starts
351 will continue to be used for the remainder of that archive volume.
354 Many storage devices are not able to support the operations necessary
355 to perform an append operation.
356 Any attempt to append to an archive stored on such a device may damage the
357 archive or have other unpredictable results.
358 Tape drives in particular are more likely to not support an append operation.
359 An archive stored in a regular file system file or on a disk device will
360 usually support an append operation.
361 .It Fl b Ar blocksize
365 block the output at a positive decimal integer number of
366 bytes per write to the archive file.
369 must be a multiple of 512 bytes with a maximum of 32256 bytes.
376 to specify multiplication by 1024 (1K) or 512, respectively.
381 to indicate a product.
382 A specific archive device may impose additional restrictions on the size
383 of blocking it will support.
384 When blocking is not specified, the default
386 is dependent on the specific archive format being used (see the
390 Match all file or archive members
392 those specified by the
398 Cause files of type directory being copied or archived, or archive members of
399 type directory being extracted, to match only the directory file or archive
400 member and not the file hierarchy rooted at the directory.
404 as the pathname of the input or output archive, overriding the default
414 A single archive may span multiple files and different archive devices.
417 will prompt for the pathname of the file or device of the next volume in the
420 Interactively rename files or archive members.
421 For each archive member matching a
423 operand or each file matching a
429 giving the name of the file, its file mode and its modification time.
431 will then read a line from
433 If this line is blank, the file or archive member is skipped.
434 If this line consists of a single period, the
435 file or archive member is processed with no modification to its name.
436 Otherwise, its name is replaced with the contents of the line.
438 will immediately exit with a non-zero exit status if
440 is encountered when reading a response or if
442 cannot be opened for reading and writing.
446 for compression when reading or writing archive files.
448 Do not overwrite existing files.
457 hard links are made between the source and destination file hierarchies
460 Select the first archive member that matches each
463 No more than one archive member is matched for each
465 When members of type directory are matched, the file hierarchy rooted at that
466 directory is also matched (unless
470 Information to modify the algorithm for extracting or writing archive files
471 which is specific to the archive format specified by
478 Specify one or more file characteristic options (privileges).
481 option-argument is a string specifying file characteristics to be retained or
482 discarded on extraction.
483 The string consists of the specification characters
488 Multiple characteristics can be concatenated within the same string
491 options can be specified.
492 The meaning of the specification characters are as follows:
495 Do not preserve file access times.
496 By default, file access times are preserved whenever possible.
498 .Sq Preserve everything ,
499 the user ID, group ID, file mode bits,
500 file access time, and file modification time.
501 This is intended to be used by
503 someone with all the appropriate privileges, in order to preserve all
504 aspects of the files as they are recorded in the archive.
507 flag is the sum of the
513 .\" Do not preserve file flags.
514 .\" By default, file flags are preserved whenever possible.
516 Do not preserve file modification times.
517 By default, file modification times are preserved whenever possible.
519 Preserve the user ID and group ID.
523 This is intended to be used by a
525 with regular privileges who wants to preserve all aspects of the file other
527 The file times are preserved by default, but two other flags are offered to
528 disable this and use the time of extraction instead.
531 In the preceding list,
533 indicates that an attribute stored in the archive is given to the
534 extracted file, subject to the permissions of the invoking
536 Otherwise the attribute of the extracted file is determined as
537 part of the normal file creation action.
542 specification character is specified, or the user ID and group ID are not
543 preserved for any reason,
551 bits of the file mode.
552 If the preservation of any of these items fails for any reason,
554 will write a diagnostic message to
556 Failure to preserve these items will affect the final exit status,
557 but will not cause the extracted file to be deleted.
558 If the file characteristic letters in any of the string option-arguments are
559 duplicated or conflict with each other, the one(s) given last will take
563 is specified, file modification times are still preserved.
565 Modify the file or archive member names specified by the
569 operands according to the substitution expression
571 using the syntax of the
573 utility regular expressions.
574 The format of these regular expressions are:
579 is a basic regular expression and
581 can contain an ampersand (\*[Am]), \en (where n is a digit) back-references,
582 or subexpression matching.
585 string may also contain
588 Any non-null character can be used as a delimiter (/ is shown here).
591 expressions can be specified.
592 The expressions are applied in the order they are specified on the
593 command line, terminating with the first successful substitution.
594 The optional trailing
596 continues to apply the substitution expression to the pathname substring
597 which starts with the first character following the end of the last successful
599 The first unsuccessful substitution stops the operation of the
602 The optional trailing
604 will cause the final result of a successful substitution to be written to
606 in the following format:
607 .Dl Ao "original pathname" Ac \*[Gt]\*[Gt] Ao "new pathname" Ac
608 File or archive member names that substitute to the empty string
609 are not selected and will be skipped.
611 Reset the access times of any file or directory read or accessed by
613 to be the same as they were before being read or accessed by
615 if the user has the appropriate permissions required by
618 Ignore files that are older (having a less recent file modification time)
619 than a pre-existing file or archive member with the same name.
622 an archive member with the same name as a file in the file system will be
623 extracted if the archive member is newer than the file.
626 a file system member with the same name as an archive member will be
627 written to the archive if it is newer than the archive member.
630 the file in the destination hierarchy is replaced by the file in the source
631 hierarchy or by a link to the file in the source hierarchy if the file in
632 the source hierarchy is newer.
636 operation, produce a verbose table of contents using the format of the
641 For pathnames representing a hard link to a previous member of the archive,
642 the output has the format:
643 .Dl Ao "ls -l listing" Ac == Ao "link name" Ac
646 is the output format specified by the
648 utility when used with the
652 Otherwise for all the other operational modes
656 pathnames are written and flushed to
660 as soon as processing begins on that file or
664 is not buffered, and is written only after the file has been read or written.
666 A final summary of archive operations is printed after they have been
669 Specify the output archive format, with the default format being
672 currently supports the following formats:
673 .Bl -tag -width "sv4cpio"
675 The extended cpio interchange format specified in the
678 The default blocksize for this format is 5120 bytes.
679 Inode and device information about a file (used for detecting file hard links
680 by this format) which may be truncated by this format is detected by
684 The old binary cpio format.
685 The default blocksize for this format is 5120 bytes.
686 This format is not very portable and should not be used when other formats
688 Inode and device information about a file (used for detecting file hard links
689 by this format) which may be truncated by this format is detected by
696 The default blocksize for this format is 5120 bytes.
697 Inode and device information about a file (used for detecting file hard links
698 by this format) which may be truncated by this format is detected by
704 cpio with file crc checksums.
705 The default blocksize for this format is 5120 bytes.
706 Inode and device information about a file (used for detecting file hard links
707 by this format) which may be truncated by this format is detected by
713 tar format as found in
715 The default blocksize for this format is 10240 bytes.
716 Pathnames stored by this format must be 100 characters or less in length.
720 .Em hard links , soft links ,
723 will be archived (other file types are not supported).
724 For backward compatibility with even older tar formats, a
726 option can be used when writing an archive to omit the storage of directories.
727 This option takes the form:
728 .Dl Fl o Cm write_opt=nodir
730 The extended tar interchange format specified in the
733 The default blocksize for this format is 10240 bytes.
734 Pathnames stored by this format must be 250 characters or less in length.
738 will detect and report any file that it is unable to store or extract
739 as the result of any specific archive format restrictions.
740 The individual archive formats may impose additional restrictions on use.
741 Typical archive format restrictions include (but are not limited to):
742 file pathname length, file size, link pathname length and the type of the file.
744 Recognize GNU tar extensions.
748 compression, when reading or writing archive files.
752 compression, when reading or writing archive files.
754 Do not strip leading `/'s from file names.
756 Limit the number of bytes written to a single archive volume to
765 to specify multiplication by 1048576 (1M), 1024 (1K) or 512, respectively.
768 limits can be separated by
770 to indicate a product.
773 Only use this option when writing an archive to a device which supports
774 an end of file read condition based on last (or largest) write offset
775 (such as a regular file or a tape drive).
776 The use of this option with a floppy or hard disk is not recommended.
778 This option is the same as the
780 option, except that the file inode change time is checked instead of the
781 file modification time.
782 The file inode change time can be used to select files whose inode information
783 (e.g. uid, gid, etc.) is newer than a copy of the file in the destination
786 Limit the number of consecutive read faults while trying to read a flawed
792 will attempt to recover from an archive read error and will
793 continue processing starting with the next file stored in the archive.
798 to stop operation after the first read error is detected on an archive volume.
805 to attempt to recover from read errors forever.
808 is a small positive number of retries.
811 Using this option with
813 should be used with extreme caution as
815 may get stuck in an infinite loop on a very badly flawed archive.
817 Select a file based on its
819 name, or when starting with a
822 A '\e' can be used to escape the
826 options may be supplied and checking stops with the first match.
828 Follow only command line symbolic links while performing a physical file
831 Follow all symbolic links to perform a logical file system traversal.
837 operation, treat the list of files on
842 specification, and write or copy only those items in the specfile.
844 If the file exists in the underlying file system, its permissions and
845 modification time will be used unless specifically overridden by the specfile.
846 An error will be raised if the type of entry in the specfile conflicts
847 with that of an existing file.
848 A directory entry that is marked
850 will not be copied (even though its contents will be).
852 Otherwise, the entry will be
854 and it is necessary to specify at least the following parameters
866 (in the case of block or character devices), and
868 (in the case of symbolic links).
871 isn't provided, the current time will be used.
878 Except for lookups for the
883 use the user database text file
885 and group database text file
889 rather than using the results from the system's
893 (and related) library calls.
895 Force the archive to be one volume.
896 If a volume ends prematurely,
898 will not prompt for a new volume.
899 This option can be useful for
900 automated tasks where error recovery cannot be performed by a human.
902 Do not follow symbolic links, perform a physical file system traversal.
903 This is the default mode.
904 .It Fl T Ar [from_date][,to_date][/[c][m]]
905 Allow files to be selected based on a file modification or inode change
906 time falling within a specified time range of
910 (the dates are inclusive).
913 is supplied, all files with a modification or inode change time
914 equal to or younger are selected.
917 is supplied, all files with a modification or inode change time
918 equal to or older will be selected.
923 only files with a modification or inode change time of exactly that
924 time will be selected.
932 mode, the optional trailing field
934 can be used to determine which file time (inode change, file modification or
935 both) are used in the comparison.
936 If neither is specified, the default is to use file modification time only.
939 specifies the comparison of file modification time (the time when
940 the file was last written).
943 specifies the comparison of inode change time (the time when the file
944 inode was last changed; e.g. a change of owner, group, mode, etc).
949 are both specified, then the modification and inode change times are
951 The inode change time comparison is useful in selecting files whose
952 attributes were recently changed or selecting files which were recently
953 created and had their modification time reset to an older time (as what
954 happens when a file is extracted from an archive and the modification time
956 Time comparisons using both file times is useful when
958 is used to create a time based incremental archive (only files that were
959 changed during a specified time range will be archived).
961 A time range is made up of six different fields and each field must contain two
964 .Dl [[[[[cc]yy]mm]dd]hh]mm[\&.ss]
967 is the first two digits of the year (the century),
969 is the last two digits of the year,
972 is the month (from 01 to 12),
974 is the day of the month (from 01 to 31),
976 is the hour of the day (from 00 to 23),
979 is the minute (from 00 to 59),
982 is the seconds (from 00 to 61).
983 Only the minute field
985 is required; the others will default to the current system values.
988 field may be added independently of the other fields.
989 If the century is not specified, it defaults to 1900 for
990 years between 69 and 99, or 2000 for years between 0 and 68.
991 Time ranges are relative to the current time, so
993 would select all files with a modification or inode change time
994 of 12:34 PM today or later.
997 time range can be supplied and checking stops with the first match.
999 Select a file based on its
1001 name, or when starting with a
1004 A '\e' can be used to escape the
1008 options may be supplied and checking stops with the first match.
1010 A final summary of archive operations is printed after they have been
1012 Some potentially long-running tape operations are noted.
1014 When traversing the file hierarchy specified by a pathname,
1015 do not descend into directories that have a different device ID.
1018 field as described in
1020 for more information about device ID's.
1022 This option is the same as the
1024 option, except that the inode change time is checked using the
1025 pathname created after all the file name modifications have completed.
1027 This option is the same as the
1029 option, except that the modification time is checked using the
1030 pathname created after all the file name modifications have completed.
1032 Use the nul character instead of \en as the file separator when reading
1033 files from standard input.
1034 .It Fl Fl force-local
1035 Do not interpret filenames that contain a `:' as remote files.
1039 ignores filenames that contain
1041 as a path component.
1046 .It Fl Fl use-compress-program
1047 Use the named program as the program to decompress the input or compress
1051 The options that operate on the names of files or archive members
1065 interact as follows.
1067 When extracting files during a
1069 operation, archive members are
1071 based only on the user specified pattern operands as modified by the
1084 options will modify in that order, the names of these selected files.
1089 options will be applied based on the final pathname.
1092 option will write the names resulting from these modifications.
1094 When archiving files during a
1096 operation, or copying files during a
1098 operation, archive members are
1100 based only on the user specified pathnames as modified by the
1110 option only applies during a copy operation).
1115 options will modify in that order, the names of these selected files.
1122 options will be applied based on the final pathname.
1125 option will write the names resulting from these modifications.
1127 When one or both of the
1131 options are specified along with the
1133 option, a file is not considered selected unless it is newer
1134 than the file to which it is compared.
1137 will exit with one of the following values:
1140 All files were processed successfully.
1147 cannot create a file or a link when reading an archive or cannot
1148 find a file when writing an archive, or cannot preserve the user ID,
1149 group ID, or file mode when the
1151 option is specified, a diagnostic message is written to
1153 and a non-zero exit status will be returned, but processing will continue.
1154 In the case where pax cannot create a link to a file,
1156 will not create a second copy of the file.
1158 If the extraction of a file from an archive is prematurely terminated by
1161 may have only partially extracted a file the user wanted.
1162 Additionally, the file modes of extracted files and directories
1163 may have incorrect file bits, and the modification and access times may be
1166 If the creation of an archive is prematurely terminated by a signal or error,
1168 may have only partially created the archive which may violate the specific
1169 archive format specification.
1174 detects a file is about to overwrite itself, the file is not copied,
1175 a diagnostic message is written to
1179 completes it will exit with a non-zero exit status.
1182 .Dl pax -w -f /dev/rst0 \&.
1183 copies the contents of the current directory to the device
1187 .Dl pax -v -f filename
1188 gives the verbose table of contents for an archive stored in
1191 The following commands:
1194 .Dl pax -rw -pp .\ ../newdir
1195 will copy the entire
1197 directory hierarchy to
1199 preserving permissions and access times.
1201 When running as root, one may also wish to preserve file
1202 ownership when copying directory trees.
1203 This can be done with the following commands:
1205 .Dl pax -rw -pe .\ ../newdir
1206 which will copy the contents of
1210 preserving ownership, permissions and access times.
1213 .Dl pax -r -s ',^//*usr//*,,' -f a.pax
1216 with all files rooted in ``/usr'' into the archive extracted relative to the
1220 .Dl pax -rw -i .\ dest_dir
1221 can be used to interactively select the files to copy from the current
1226 .Dl pax -r -pe -U root -G bin -f a.pax
1227 will extract all files from the archive
1233 and will preserve all file permissions.
1236 .Dl pax -r -w -v -Y -Z home /backup
1237 will update (and list) only those files in the destination directory
1239 which are older (less recent inode change or file modification times) than
1240 files with the same name found in the source file tree
1250 utility is a superset of the
1273 and the flawed archive handling during
1277 operations are extensions to the
1281 Keith Muller at the University of California, San Diego.
1282 Luke Mewburn implemented