1 .\" $OpenBSD: pax.1,v 1.73 2016/08/26 04:40:27 guenther Exp $
2 .\" $NetBSD: pax.1,v 1.3 1995/03/21 09:07:37 cgd Exp $
4 .\" Copyright (c) 1992 Keith Muller.
5 .\" Copyright (c) 1992, 1993
6 .\" The Regents of the University of California. All rights reserved.
8 .\" This code is derived from software contributed to Berkeley by
9 .\" Keith Muller of the University of California, San Diego.
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12 .\" modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions
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35 .\" @(#)pax.1 8.4 (Berkeley) 4/18/94
37 .Dd $Mdocdate: August 26 2016 $
42 .Nd read and write file archives and copy directory hierarchies
80 .Op Fl 0DdHijkLlnOPtuvXYZ
90 will read, write, and list the members of an archive file
91 and will copy directory hierarchies.
93 operation is independent of the specific archive format
94 and supports a wide variety of different archive formats.
95 A list of supported archive formats can be found under the description of the
103 options specifies which of the following functional modes
106 .Em list , read , write ,
113 will write to standard output
114 a table of contents of the members of the archive file read from
115 standard input, whose pathnames match the specified
118 The table of contents contains one filename per line
119 and is written using single line buffering.
123 extracts the members of the archive file read from the standard input,
124 with pathnames matching the specified
127 The archive format and blocking is automatically determined on input.
128 When an extracted file is a directory, the entire file hierarchy
129 rooted at that directory is extracted.
130 All extracted files are created relative to the current file hierarchy.
131 The setting of ownership, access and modification times, and file mode of
132 the extracted files are discussed in more detail under the
138 writes an archive containing the
140 operands to standard output
141 using the specified archive format.
144 operands are specified, a list of files to copy with one per line is read from
148 operand is also a directory, the entire file hierarchy rooted
149 at that directory will be included.
155 operands to the destination
159 operands are specified, a list of files to copy with one per line is read from
163 operand is also a directory the entire file
164 hierarchy rooted at that directory will be included.
167 is as if the copied files were written to an archive file and then
168 subsequently extracted, except that there may be hard links between
169 the original and the copied files (see the
176 must not be one of the
178 operands or a member of a file hierarchy rooted at one of the
183 under these conditions is unpredictable.
186 While processing a damaged archive during a read or list operation,
188 will attempt to recover from media defects and will search through the archive
189 to locate and process the largest number of archive members possible (see the
191 option for more details on error handling).
195 operand specifies a destination directory pathname.
198 operand does not exist, or it is not writable by the user,
199 or it is not of type directory,
201 will exit with a non-zero exit status.
205 operand is used to select one or more pathnames of archive members.
206 Archive members are selected using the pattern matching notation described
211 operand is not supplied, all members of the archive will be selected.
214 matches a directory, the entire file hierarchy rooted at that directory will
218 operand does not select at least one archive member,
222 operands in a diagnostic message to standard error
223 and then exit with a non-zero exit status.
227 operand specifies the pathname of a file to be copied or archived.
230 operand does not select at least one archive member,
234 operand pathnames in a diagnostic message to standard error
235 and then exit with a non-zero exit status.
237 The options are as follows:
242 character as a pathname terminator, instead of newline
244 This applies only to the pathnames read from standard input in
245 the write and copy modes,
246 and to the pathnames written to standard output in list mode.
247 This option is expected to be used in concert with the
259 to the end of an archive that was previously written.
260 If an archive format is not specified with a
262 option, the format currently being used in the archive will be selected.
263 Any attempt to append to an archive in a format different from the
264 format already used in the archive will cause
267 with a non-zero exit status.
268 The blocking size used in the archive volume where writing starts
269 will continue to be used for the remainder of that archive volume.
272 Many storage devices are not able to support the operations necessary
273 to perform an append operation.
274 Any attempt to append to an archive stored on such a device may damage the
275 archive or have other unpredictable results.
276 Tape drives in particular are more likely to not support an append operation.
277 An archive stored in a regular file system file or on a disk device will
278 usually support an append operation.
280 Limit the number of bytes written to a single archive volume to
289 to specify multiplication by 1048576 (1M), 1024 (1K) or 512, respectively.
292 limits can be separated by
294 to indicate a product.
297 Only use this option when writing an archive to a device which supports
298 an end of file read condition based on last (or largest) write offset
299 (such as a regular file or a tape drive).
300 The use of this option with a floppy or hard disk is not recommended.
301 .It Fl b Ar blocksize
302 When writing an archive,
303 block the output at a positive decimal integer number of
304 bytes per write to the archive file.
307 must be a multiple of 512 bytes with a maximum of 64512 bytes.
308 Archive block sizes larger than 32256 bytes violate the POSIX
309 standard and will not be portable to all systems.
316 to specify multiplication by 1024 (1K) or 512, respectively.
317 A pair of blocksizes can be separated by
319 to indicate a product.
320 A specific archive device may impose additional restrictions on the size
321 of blocking it will support.
322 When blocking is not specified, the default
324 is dependent on the specific archive format being used (see the
328 Match all file or archive members
330 those specified by the
336 This option is the same as the
338 option, except that the file inode change time is checked instead of the
339 file modification time.
340 The file inode change time can be used to select files whose inode information
341 (e.g., UID, GID, etc.) is newer than a copy of the file in the destination
344 Cause files of type directory being copied or archived, or archive members of
345 type directory being extracted, to match only the directory file or archive
346 member and not the file hierarchy rooted at the directory.
348 Limit the number of consecutive read faults while trying to read a flawed
354 will attempt to recover from an archive read error and will
355 continue processing starting with the next file stored in the archive.
360 to stop operation after the first read error is detected on an archive volume.
363 is a small positive number of retries.
367 as the pathname of the input or output archive, overriding the default
368 standard input (for list and read)
371 A single archive may span multiple files and different archive devices.
374 will prompt for the pathname of the file or device of the next volume in the
377 Select a file based on its
379 name, or when starting with a
384 can be used to escape the
388 options may be supplied and checking stops with the first match.
390 Follow only command-line symbolic links while performing a physical file
393 Interactively rename files or archive members.
394 For each archive member matching a
396 operand or each file matching a
402 giving the name of the file, its file mode, and its modification time.
404 will then read a line from
406 If this line is blank, the file or archive member is skipped.
407 If this line consists of a single period, the
408 file or archive member is processed with no modification to its name.
409 Otherwise, its name is replaced with the contents of the line.
411 will immediately exit with a non-zero exit status if
413 is encountered when reading a response or if
415 cannot be opened for reading and writing.
417 Use bzip2 to compress (decompress) the archive while writing (reading).
418 The bzip2 utility must be installed separately.
422 Do not overwrite existing files.
424 Follow all symbolic links to perform a logical file system traversal.
426 (The lowercase letter
431 hard links are made between the source and destination file hierarchies
434 Select the first archive member that matches each
437 No more than one archive member is matched for each
439 When members of type directory are matched, the file hierarchy rooted at that
440 directory is also matched (unless
444 Force the archive to be one volume.
445 If a volume ends prematurely,
447 will not prompt for a new volume.
448 This option can be useful for
449 automated tasks where error recovery cannot be performed by a human.
451 Information to modify the algorithm for extracting or writing archive files
452 which is specific to the archive format specified by
457 .Ar name Ns = Ns Ar value .
459 The following options are available for the
466 .Bl -tag -width Ds -compact
467 .It Cm write_opt=nodir
468 When writing archives, omit the storage of directories.
471 Do not follow symbolic links, perform a physical file system traversal.
472 This is the default mode.
474 Specify one or more file characteristic options (privileges).
477 option-argument is a string specifying file characteristics to be retained or
478 discarded on extraction.
479 The string consists of the specification characters
483 Multiple characteristics can be concatenated within the same string
486 options can be specified.
487 The meanings of the specification characters are as follows:
490 Do not preserve file access times.
491 By default, file access times are preserved whenever possible.
493 .Dq Preserve everything ,
494 the user ID, group ID, file mode bits,
495 file access time, and file modification time.
496 This is intended to be used by root,
497 someone with all the appropriate privileges, in order to preserve all
498 aspects of the files as they are recorded in the archive.
501 flag is the sum of the
507 Do not preserve file modification times.
508 By default, file modification times are preserved whenever possible.
510 Preserve the user ID and group ID.
514 This is intended to be used by a user with regular privileges
515 who wants to preserve all aspects of the file other than the ownership.
516 The file times are preserved by default, but two other flags are offered to
517 disable this and use the time of extraction instead.
520 In the preceding list,
522 indicates that an attribute stored in the archive is given to the
523 extracted file, subject to the permissions of the invoking
525 Otherwise the attribute of the extracted file is determined as
526 part of the normal file creation action.
531 specification character is specified, or the user ID and group ID are not
532 preserved for any reason,
538 (setgid) bits of the file mode.
539 If the preservation of any of these items fails for any reason,
541 will write a diagnostic message to standard error.
542 Failure to preserve these items will affect the final exit status,
543 but will not cause the extracted file to be deleted.
544 If the file characteristic letters in any of the string option-arguments are
545 duplicated or conflict with each other, the one(s) given last will take
549 is specified, file modification times are still preserved.
551 Read an archive file from standard input
552 and extract the specified
555 If any intermediate directories are needed in order to extract an archive
556 member, these directories will be created as if
558 was called with the bitwise OR of
559 .Dv S_IRWXU , S_IRWXG ,
562 as the mode argument.
563 When the selected archive format supports the specification of linked
564 files and these files cannot be linked while the archive is being extracted,
566 will write a diagnostic message to standard error
567 and exit with a non-zero exit status at the completion of operation.
569 Modify the archive member names according to the substitution expression
571 using the syntax of the
573 utility regular expressions.
577 arguments may be given to restrict the list of archive members to those
580 The format of these regular expressions is:
587 is a basic regular expression (see
591 can contain an ampersand
596 is a digit) back-references,
597 or subexpression matching.
600 string may also contain newline characters.
601 Any non-null character can be used as a delimiter
608 expressions can be specified.
609 The expressions are applied in the order they are specified on the
610 command line, terminating with the first successful substitution.
612 The optional trailing
614 continues to apply the substitution expression to the pathname substring,
615 which starts with the first character following the end of the last successful
617 The first unsuccessful substitution stops the operation of the
620 The optional trailing
622 will cause the final result of a successful substitution to be written to
623 standard error in the following format:
625 .D1 Em original-pathname No >> Em new-pathname
627 File or archive member names that substitute to the empty string
628 are not selected and will be skipped.
630 Allow files to be selected based on a file modification or inode change
631 time falling within the specified time range.
632 The range has the format:
634 .Bd -filled -offset indent
637 .Op / Oo Cm c Oc Op Cm m
641 The dates specified by
648 is supplied, all files with a modification or inode change time
649 equal to or younger are selected.
652 is supplied, all files with a modification or inode change time
653 equal to or older will be selected.
658 only files with a modification or inode change time of exactly that
659 time will be selected.
663 is in write or copy mode, the optional trailing field
664 .Oo Cm c Oc Ns Op Cm m
665 can be used to determine which file time (inode change, file modification or
666 both) are used in the comparison.
667 If neither is specified, the default is to use file modification time only.
670 specifies the comparison of file modification time (the time when
671 the file was last written).
674 specifies the comparison of inode change time (the time when the file
675 inode was last changed; e.g., a change of owner, group, mode, etc).
680 are both specified, then the modification and inode change times are
683 The inode change time comparison is useful in selecting files whose
684 attributes were recently changed or selecting files which were recently
685 created and had their modification time reset to an older time (as what
686 happens when a file is extracted from an archive and the modification time
688 Time comparisons using both file times is useful when
690 is used to create a time based incremental archive (only files that were
691 changed during a specified time range will be archived).
693 A time range is made up of six different fields and each field must contain two
697 .Dl [[[[[cc]yy]mm]dd]HH]MM[.SS]
701 is the first two digits of the year (the century),
703 is the last two digits of the year,
706 is the month (from 01 to 12),
708 is the day of the month (from 01 to 31),
710 is the hour of the day (from 00 to 23),
712 is the minute (from 00 to 59),
715 is the seconds (from 00 to 59).
718 is required, while the other fields are optional and must be added in the
725 field may be added independently of the other fields.
726 Time ranges are relative to the current time, so
728 would select all files with a modification or inode change time
729 of 12:34 PM today or later.
732 time range can be supplied and checking stops with the first match.
734 Reset the access times of any file or directory read or accessed by
736 to be the same as they were before being read or accessed by
739 Select a file based on its
741 name, or when starting with a
746 can be used to escape the
750 options may be supplied and checking stops with the first match.
752 Ignore files that are older (having a less recent file modification time)
753 than a pre-existing file or archive member with the same name.
755 an archive member with the same name as a file in the file system will be
756 extracted if the archive member is newer than the file.
758 a file system member with the same name as an archive member will be
759 written to the archive if it is newer than the archive member.
761 the file in the destination hierarchy is replaced by the file in the source
762 hierarchy or by a link to the file in the source hierarchy if the file in
763 the source hierarchy is newer.
765 During a list operation, produce a verbose table of contents using the format of the
770 For pathnames representing a hard link to a previous member of the archive,
771 the output has the format:
773 .Dl Em ls -l listing No == Em link-name
775 For pathnames representing a symbolic link, the output has the format:
777 .Dl Em ls -l listing No -> Em link-name
781 is the output format specified by the
783 utility when used with the
786 Otherwise for all the other operational modes
787 (read, write, and copy),
788 pathnames are written and flushed to standard error
789 without a trailing newline
790 as soon as processing begins on that file or
793 is not buffered and is written only after the file has been read or written.
795 Write files to the standard output
796 in the specified archive format.
799 operands are specified, standard input
800 is read for a list of pathnames with one per line without any leading or
804 When traversing the file hierarchy specified by a pathname,
805 do not descend into directories that have a different device ID.
808 field as described in
810 for more information about device IDs.
812 Specify the output archive format, with the default format being
815 currently supports the following formats:
816 .Bl -tag -width "sv4cpio"
818 The old binary cpio format.
819 The default blocksize for this format is 5120 bytes.
820 This format is not very portable and should not be used when other formats
822 Inode and device information about a file (used for detecting file hard links
823 by this format), which may be truncated by this format, is detected by
827 The extended cpio interchange format specified in the
830 The default blocksize for this format is 5120 bytes.
831 Inode and device information about a file (used for detecting file hard links
832 by this format), which may be truncated by this format, is detected by
836 The System V release 4 cpio.
837 The default blocksize for this format is 5120 bytes.
838 Inode and device information about a file (used for detecting file hard links
839 by this format), which may be truncated by this format, is detected by
843 The System V release 4 cpio with file CRC checksums.
844 The default blocksize for this format is 5120 bytes.
845 Inode and device information about a file (used for detecting file hard links
846 by this format), which may be truncated by this format, is detected by
852 tar format as found in
854 The default blocksize for this format is 10240 bytes.
855 Pathnames stored by this format must be 100 characters or less in length.
856 Only regular files, hard links, soft links, and directories
857 will be archived (other file system types are not supported).
858 For backwards compatibility with even older tar formats, a
860 option can be used when writing an archive to omit the storage of directories.
861 This option takes the form:
863 .Dl Fl o Cm write_opt=nodir
865 The extended tar interchange format specified in the
868 The default blocksize for this format is 10240 bytes.
869 Filenames stored by this format must be 100 characters or less in length;
870 the total pathname must be 256 characters or less.
874 will detect and report any file that it is unable to store or extract
875 as the result of any specific archive format restrictions.
876 The individual archive formats may impose additional restrictions on use.
877 Typical archive format restrictions include (but are not limited to):
878 file pathname length, file size, link pathname length, and the type of the
881 This option is the same as the
883 option, except that the inode change time is checked using the
884 pathname created after all the file name modifications have completed.
886 This option is the same as the
888 option, except that the modification time is checked using the
889 pathname created after all the file name modifications have completed.
893 to compress (decompress) the archive while writing (reading).
898 The options that operate on the names of files or archive members
916 When extracting files during a read operation, archive members are
918 based only on the user specified pattern operands as modified by the
931 options will modify in that order, the names of these selected files.
936 options will be applied based on the final pathname.
939 option will write the names resulting from these modifications.
941 When archiving files during a write operation,
942 or copying files during a copy operation,
945 based only on the user specified pathnames as modified by the
955 option only applies during a copy operation).
960 options will modify in that order, the names of these selected files.
961 Then during a copy operation the
965 options will be applied based on the final pathname.
968 option will write the names resulting from these modifications.
970 When one or both of the
974 options are specified along with the
976 option, a file is not considered selected unless it is newer
977 than the file to which it is compared.
981 Path in which to store temporary files.
986 Copy the contents of the current directory to the device
989 .Dl $ pax -w -f /dev/rst0 \&.
991 Give the verbose table of contents for an archive stored in
994 .Dl $ pax -v -f filename
996 This sequence of commands will copy the entire
998 directory hierarchy to
1000 .Bd -literal -offset indent
1003 $ pax -rw . ../newdir
1006 Extract files from the archive
1010 are extracted relative to the current working directory;
1011 all other files are extracted to their unmodified path.
1013 .Dl $ pax -r -s ',^/usr/,,' -f a.pax
1015 This can be used to interactively select the files to copy from the
1016 current directory to
1019 .Dl $ pax -rw -i \&. dest_dir
1021 Extract all files from the archive
1027 and preserve all file permissions:
1029 .Dl $ pax -r -pe -U root -G bin -f a.pax
1031 Update (and list) only those files in the destination directory
1033 which are older (less recent inode change or file modification times) than
1034 files with the same name found in the source file tree
1037 .Dl $ pax -r -w -v -Y -Z home /backup
1041 cannot create a file or a link when reading an archive or cannot
1042 find a file when writing an archive, or cannot preserve the user ID,
1043 group ID, or file mode when the
1045 option is specified, a diagnostic message is written to standard error
1046 and a non-zero exit status will be returned, but processing will continue.
1049 cannot create a link to a file,
1051 will not create a second copy of the file.
1053 If the extraction of a file from an archive is prematurely terminated by
1056 may have only partially extracted a file the user wanted.
1057 Additionally, the file modes of extracted files and directories
1058 may have incorrect file bits, and the modification and access times may be
1061 If the creation of an archive is prematurely terminated by a signal or error,
1063 may have only partially created the archive, which may violate the specific
1064 archive format specification.
1066 If while doing a copy,
1068 detects a file is about to overwrite itself, the file is not copied,
1069 a diagnostic message is written to standard error
1072 completes it will exit with a non-zero exit status.
1079 utility is compliant with the
1084 archive format and the
1086 keyword are unsupported.
1089 .Op Fl 0BDEGjOPTUYZz ,
1103 and the flawed archive handling during list and read operations
1104 are extensions to that specification.
1112 at the University of California, San Diego.