1 .\" $OpenBSD: pax.1,v 1.56 2009/02/08 17:33:01 jmc 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: February 8 2009 $
42 .Nd read and write file archives and copy directory hierarchies
81 .Op Fl 0DdHijkLlnOPtuvXYZ
92 will read, write, and list the members of an archive file
93 and will copy directory hierarchies.
95 operation is independent of the specific archive format
96 and supports a wide variety of different archive formats.
97 A list of supported archive formats can be found under the description of the
105 options specifies which of the following functional modes
108 .Em list , read , write ,
115 will write to standard output
116 a table of contents of the members of the archive file read from
117 standard input, whose pathnames match the specified
120 The table of contents contains one filename per line
121 and is written using single line buffering.
125 extracts the members of the archive file read from the standard input,
126 with pathnames matching the specified
129 The archive format and blocking is automatically determined on input.
130 When an extracted file is a directory, the entire file hierarchy
131 rooted at that directory is extracted.
132 All extracted files are created relative to the current file hierarchy.
133 The setting of ownership, access and modification times, and file mode of
134 the extracted files are discussed in more detail under the
140 writes an archive containing the
142 operands to standard output
143 using the specified archive format.
146 operands are specified, a list of files to copy with one per line is read from
150 operand is also a directory, the entire file hierarchy rooted
151 at that directory will be included.
157 operands to the destination
161 operands are specified, a list of files to copy with one per line is read from
165 operand is also a directory the entire file
166 hierarchy rooted at that directory will be included.
169 is as if the copied files were written to an archive file and then
170 subsequently extracted, except that there may be hard links between
171 the original and the copied files (see the
178 must not be one of the
180 operands or a member of a file hierarchy rooted at one of the
185 under these conditions is unpredictable.
188 While processing a damaged archive during a
194 will attempt to recover from media defects and will search through the archive
195 to locate and process the largest number of archive members possible (see the
197 option for more details on error handling).
201 operand specifies a destination directory pathname.
204 operand does not exist, or it is not writable by the user,
205 or it is not of type directory,
207 will exit with a non-zero exit status.
211 operand is used to select one or more pathnames of archive members.
212 Archive members are selected using the pattern matching notation described
217 operand is not supplied, all members of the archive will be selected.
220 matches a directory, the entire file hierarchy rooted at that directory will
224 operand does not select at least one archive member,
228 operands in a diagnostic message to standard error
229 and then exit with a non-zero exit status.
233 operand specifies the pathname of a file to be copied or archived.
236 operand does not select at least one archive member,
240 operand pathnames in a diagnostic message to standard error
241 and then exit with a non-zero exit status.
243 The options are as follows:
248 character as a pathname terminator, instead of newline
250 This applies only to the pathnames read from standard input in
251 the write and copy modes,
252 and to the pathnames written to standard output in list mode.
253 This option is expected to be used in concert with the
265 to the end of an archive that was previously written.
266 If an archive format is not specified with a
268 option, the format currently being used in the archive will be selected.
269 Any attempt to append to an archive in a format different from the
270 format already used in the archive will cause
273 with a non-zero exit status.
274 The blocking size used in the archive volume where writing starts
275 will continue to be used for the remainder of that archive volume.
278 Many storage devices are not able to support the operations necessary
279 to perform an append operation.
280 Any attempt to append to an archive stored on such a device may damage the
281 archive or have other unpredictable results.
282 Tape drives in particular are more likely to not support an append operation.
283 An archive stored in a regular file system file or on a disk device will
284 usually support an append operation.
286 Limit the number of bytes written to a single archive volume to
295 to specify multiplication by 1048576 (1M), 1024 (1K) or 512, respectively.
298 limits can be separated by
300 to indicate a product.
303 Only use this option when writing an archive to a device which supports
304 an end of file read condition based on last (or largest) write offset
305 (such as a regular file or a tape drive).
306 The use of this option with a floppy or hard disk is not recommended.
307 .It Fl b Ar blocksize
311 block the output at a positive decimal integer number of
312 bytes per write to the archive file.
315 must be a multiple of 512 bytes with a maximum of 64512 bytes.
316 Archive block sizes larger than 32256 bytes violate the
318 standard and will not be portable to all systems.
325 to specify multiplication by 1024 (1K) or 512, respectively.
330 to indicate a product.
331 A specific archive device may impose additional restrictions on the size
332 of blocking it will support.
333 When blocking is not specified, the default
335 is dependent on the specific archive format being used (see the
339 Match all file or archive members
341 those specified by the
347 This option is the same as the
349 option, except that the file inode change time is checked instead of the
350 file modification time.
351 The file inode change time can be used to select files whose inode information
352 (e.g., UID, GID, etc.) is newer than a copy of the file in the destination
355 Cause files of type directory being copied or archived, or archive members of
356 type directory being extracted, to match only the directory file or archive
357 member and not the file hierarchy rooted at the directory.
359 Limit the number of consecutive read faults while trying to read a flawed
365 will attempt to recover from an archive read error and will
366 continue processing starting with the next file stored in the archive.
371 to stop operation after the first read error is detected on an archive volume.
378 to attempt to recover from read errors forever.
381 is a small positive number of retries.
384 Using this option with
386 should be used with extreme caution as
388 may get stuck in an infinite loop on a very badly flawed archive.
392 as the pathname of the input or output archive, overriding the default
400 A single archive may span multiple files and different archive devices.
403 will prompt for the pathname of the file or device of the next volume in the
406 Select a file based on its
408 name, or when starting with a
413 can be used to escape the
417 options may be supplied and checking stops with the first match.
419 Follow only command-line symbolic links while performing a physical file
422 Interactively rename files or archive members.
423 For each archive member matching a
425 operand or each file matching a
431 giving the name of the file, its file mode, and its modification time.
433 will then read a line from
435 If this line is blank, the file or archive member is skipped.
436 If this line consists of a single period, the
437 file or archive member is processed with no modification to its name.
438 Otherwise, its name is replaced with the contents of the line.
440 will immediately exit with a non-zero exit status if
442 is encountered when reading a response or if
444 cannot be opened for reading and writing.
446 Use bzip2 to compress (decompress) the archive while writing (reading).
447 The bzip2 utility must be installed separately.
451 Do not overwrite existing files.
453 Follow all symbolic links to perform a logical file system traversal.
455 (The lowercase letter
462 hard links are made between the source and destination file hierarchies
465 Select the first archive member that matches each
468 No more than one archive member is matched for each
470 When members of type directory are matched, the file hierarchy rooted at that
471 directory is also matched (unless
475 Force the archive to be one volume.
476 If a volume ends prematurely,
478 will not prompt for a new volume.
479 This option can be useful for
480 automated tasks where error recovery cannot be performed by a human.
482 Information to modify the algorithm for extracting or writing archive files
483 which is specific to the archive format specified by
488 .Ar name Ns = Ns Ar value .
490 The following options are available for the old
495 .Bl -tag -width Ds -compact
497 .It Cm write_opt=nodir
498 When writing archives, omit the storage of directories.
501 Do not follow symbolic links, perform a physical file system traversal.
502 This is the default mode.
504 Specify one or more file characteristic options (privileges).
507 option-argument is a string specifying file characteristics to be retained or
508 discarded on extraction.
509 The string consists of the specification characters
513 Multiple characteristics can be concatenated within the same string
516 options can be specified.
517 The meanings of the specification characters are as follows:
520 Do not preserve file access times.
521 By default, file access times are preserved whenever possible.
523 .Dq Preserve everything ,
524 the user ID, group ID, file mode bits,
525 file access time, and file modification time.
526 This is intended to be used by
528 someone with all the appropriate privileges, in order to preserve all
529 aspects of the files as they are recorded in the archive.
532 flag is the sum of the
538 Do not preserve file modification times.
539 By default, file modification times are preserved whenever possible.
541 Preserve the user ID and group ID.
545 This is intended to be used by a
547 with regular privileges who wants to preserve all aspects of the file other
549 The file times are preserved by default, but two other flags are offered to
550 disable this and use the time of extraction instead.
553 In the preceding list,
555 indicates that an attribute stored in the archive is given to the
556 extracted file, subject to the permissions of the invoking
558 Otherwise the attribute of the extracted file is determined as
559 part of the normal file creation action.
564 specification character is specified, or the user ID and group ID are not
565 preserved for any reason,
573 bits of the file mode.
574 If the preservation of any of these items fails for any reason,
576 will write a diagnostic message to standard error.
577 Failure to preserve these items will affect the final exit status,
578 but will not cause the extracted file to be deleted.
579 If the file characteristic letters in any of the string option-arguments are
580 duplicated or conflict with each other, the one(s) given last will take
584 is specified, file modification times are still preserved.
586 Read an archive file from standard input
587 and extract the specified
590 If any intermediate directories are needed in order to extract an archive
591 member, these directories will be created as if
593 was called with the bitwise inclusive
596 .Dv S_IRWXU , S_IRWXG ,
599 as the mode argument.
600 When the selected archive format supports the specification of linked
601 files and these files cannot be linked while the archive is being extracted,
603 will write a diagnostic message to standard error
604 and exit with a non-zero exit status at the completion of operation.
606 Modify the archive member names according to the substitution expression
608 using the syntax of the
610 utility regular expressions.
614 arguments may be given to restrict the list of archive members to those
617 The format of these regular expressions is:
624 is a basic regular expression (see
628 can contain an ampersand
633 is a digit) back-references,
634 or subexpression matching.
637 string may also contain newline characters.
638 Any non-null character can be used as a delimiter
645 expressions can be specified.
646 The expressions are applied in the order they are specified on the
647 command line, terminating with the first successful substitution.
649 The optional trailing
651 continues to apply the substitution expression to the pathname substring,
652 which starts with the first character following the end of the last successful
654 The first unsuccessful substitution stops the operation of the
657 The optional trailing
659 will cause the final result of a successful substitution to be written to
660 standard error in the following format:
662 .D1 Em original-pathname No \*(Gt\*(Gt Em new-pathname
664 File or archive member names that substitute to the empty string
665 are not selected and will be skipped.
667 Allow files to be selected based on a file modification or inode change
668 time falling within the specified time range.
669 The range has the format:
671 .Bd -filled -offset indent
672 .Oo Ar from_date Oc Oo ,
674 .Oo Cm c Oc Op Cm m Oc
678 The dates specified by
685 is supplied, all files with a modification or inode change time
686 equal to or younger are selected.
689 is supplied, all files with a modification or inode change time
690 equal to or older will be selected.
695 only files with a modification or inode change time of exactly that
696 time will be selected.
704 mode, the optional trailing field
706 can be used to determine which file time (inode change, file modification or
707 both) are used in the comparison.
708 If neither is specified, the default is to use file modification time only.
711 specifies the comparison of file modification time (the time when
712 the file was last written).
715 specifies the comparison of inode change time (the time when the file
716 inode was last changed; e.g., a change of owner, group, mode, etc).
721 are both specified, then the modification and inode change times are
724 The inode change time comparison is useful in selecting files whose
725 attributes were recently changed or selecting files which were recently
726 created and had their modification time reset to an older time (as what
727 happens when a file is extracted from an archive and the modification time
729 Time comparisons using both file times is useful when
731 is used to create a time based incremental archive (only files that were
732 changed during a specified time range will be archived).
734 A time range is made up of six different fields and each field must contain two
738 .Dl [[[[[cc]yy]mm]dd]HH]MM[.SS]
742 is the first two digits of the year (the century),
744 is the last two digits of the year,
747 is the month (from 01 to 12),
749 is the day of the month (from 01 to 31),
751 is the hour of the day (from 00 to 23),
753 is the minute (from 00 to 59),
756 is the seconds (from 00 to 59).
759 is required, while the other fields are optional and must be added in the
766 field may be added independently of the other fields.
767 Time ranges are relative to the current time, so
769 would select all files with a modification or inode change time
770 of 12:34 PM today or later.
773 time range can be supplied and checking stops with the first match.
775 Reset the access times of any file or directory read or accessed by
777 to be the same as they were before being read or accessed by
780 Select a file based on its
782 name, or when starting with a
787 can be used to escape the
791 options may be supplied and checking stops with the first match.
793 Ignore files that are older (having a less recent file modification time)
794 than a pre-existing file or archive member with the same name.
797 an archive member with the same name as a file in the file system will be
798 extracted if the archive member is newer than the file.
801 a file system member with the same name as an archive member will be
802 written to the archive if it is newer than the archive member.
805 the file in the destination hierarchy is replaced by the file in the source
806 hierarchy or by a link to the file in the source hierarchy if the file in
807 the source hierarchy is newer.
811 operation, produce a verbose table of contents using the format of the
816 For pathnames representing a hard link to a previous member of the archive,
817 the output has the format:
819 .Dl Em ls -l listing Li == Em link-name
821 For pathnames representing a symbolic link, the output has the format:
823 .Dl Em ls -l listing Li =\*(Gt Em link-name
827 is the output format specified by the
829 utility when used with the
832 Otherwise for all the other operational modes
833 .Po Em read , write , No and Em copy
835 pathnames are written and flushed to standard error
836 without a trailing newline
837 as soon as processing begins on that file or
840 is not buffered and is written only after the file has been read or written.
842 Write files to the standard output
843 in the specified archive format.
846 operands are specified, standard input
847 is read for a list of pathnames with one per line without any leading or
851 When traversing the file hierarchy specified by a pathname,
852 do not descend into directories that have a different device ID.
855 field as described in
857 for more information about device IDs.
859 Specify the output archive format, with the default format being
862 currently supports the following formats:
863 .Bl -tag -width "sv4cpio"
865 The old binary cpio format.
866 The default blocksize for this format is 5120 bytes.
867 This format is not very portable and should not be used when other formats
869 Inode and device information about a file (used for detecting file hard links
870 by this format), which may be truncated by this format, is detected by
874 The extended cpio interchange format specified in the
877 The default blocksize for this format is 5120 bytes.
878 Inode and device information about a file (used for detecting file hard links
879 by this format), which may be truncated by this format, is detected by
883 The System V release 4 cpio.
884 The default blocksize for this format is 5120 bytes.
885 Inode and device information about a file (used for detecting file hard links
886 by this format), which may be truncated by this format, is detected by
890 The System V release 4 cpio with file CRC checksums.
891 The default blocksize for this format is 5120 bytes.
892 Inode and device information about a file (used for detecting file hard links
893 by this format), which may be truncated by this format, is detected by
899 tar format as found in
901 The default blocksize for this format is 10240 bytes.
902 Pathnames stored by this format must be 100 characters or less in length.
906 .Em hard links , soft links ,
909 will be archived (other file system types are not supported).
910 For backwards compatibility with even older tar formats, a
912 option can be used when writing an archive to omit the storage of directories.
913 This option takes the form:
915 .Dl Fl o Cm write_opt=nodir
917 The extended tar interchange format specified in the
920 The default blocksize for this format is 10240 bytes.
921 Filenames stored by this format must be 100 characters or less in length;
922 the total pathname must be 255 characters or less.
926 will detect and report any file that it is unable to store or extract
927 as the result of any specific archive format restrictions.
928 The individual archive formats may impose additional restrictions on use.
929 Typical archive format restrictions include (but are not limited to):
930 file pathname length, file size, link pathname length, and the type of the
933 This option is the same as the
935 option, except that the inode change time is checked using the
936 pathname created after all the file name modifications have completed.
938 This option is the same as the
940 option, except that the modification time is checked using the
941 pathname created after all the file name modifications have completed.
945 to compress (decompress) the archive while writing (reading).
950 The options that operate on the names of files or archive members
968 When extracting files during a
970 operation, archive members are
972 based only on the user specified pattern operands as modified by the
985 options will modify in that order, the names of these selected files.
990 options will be applied based on the final pathname.
993 option will write the names resulting from these modifications.
995 When archiving files during a
997 operation, or copying files during a
999 operation, archive members are
1001 based only on the user specified pathnames as modified by the
1011 option only applies during a copy operation).
1016 options will modify in that order, the names of these selected files.
1023 options will be applied based on the final pathname.
1026 option will write the names resulting from these modifications.
1028 When one or both of the
1032 options are specified along with the
1034 option, a file is not considered selected unless it is newer
1035 than the file to which it is compared.
1039 Path in which to store temporary files.
1042 Copy the contents of the current directory to the device
1045 .Dl $ pax -w -f /dev/rst0 \&.
1047 Give the verbose table of contents for an archive stored in
1050 .Dl $ pax -v -f filename
1052 This sequence of commands will copy the entire
1054 directory hierarchy to
1056 .Bd -literal -offset indent
1059 $ pax -rw . ../newdir
1062 Extract files from the archive
1066 are extracted relative to the current working directory;
1067 all other files are extracted to their unmodified path.
1069 .Dl $ pax -r -s ',^/usr/,,' -f a.pax
1071 This can be used to interactively select the files to copy from the
1072 current directory to
1075 .Dl $ pax -rw -i \&. dest_dir
1077 Extract all files from the archive
1083 and preserve all file permissions:
1085 .Dl "$ pax -r -pe -U root -G bin -f a.pax"
1087 Update (and list) only those files in the destination directory
1089 which are older (less recent inode change or file modification times) than
1090 files with the same name found in the source file tree
1093 .Dl "$ pax -r -w -v -Y -Z home /backup"
1096 will exit with one of the following values:
1097 .Bl -tag -width 2n -offset indent
1099 All files were processed successfully.
1106 cannot create a file or a link when reading an archive or cannot
1107 find a file when writing an archive, or cannot preserve the user ID,
1108 group ID, or file mode when the
1110 option is specified, a diagnostic message is written to standard error
1111 and a non-zero exit status will be returned, but processing will continue.
1114 cannot create a link to a file,
1116 will not create a second copy of the file.
1118 If the extraction of a file from an archive is prematurely terminated by
1121 may have only partially extracted a file the user wanted.
1122 Additionally, the file modes of extracted files and directories
1123 may have incorrect file bits, and the modification and access times may be
1126 If the creation of an archive is prematurely terminated by a signal or error,
1128 may have only partially created the archive, which may violate the specific
1129 archive format specification.
1134 detects a file is about to overwrite itself, the file is not copied,
1135 a diagnostic message is written to standard error
1138 completes it will exit with a non-zero exit status.
1145 utility is compliant with the
1150 .Op Fl 0BDEGjOPTUYZz ,
1156 and the flawed archive handling during
1161 are extensions to that specification.
1163 Keith Muller at the University of California, San Diego.