1 .\" Copyright (c) 1992 Keith Muller.
2 .\" Copyright (c) 1992, 1993
3 .\" The Regents of the University of California. All rights reserved.
5 .\" This code is derived from software contributed to Berkeley by
6 .\" Keith Muller of the University of California, San Diego.
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36 .\" @(#)pax.1 8.4 (Berkeley) 4/18/94
37 .\" $FreeBSD: src/bin/pax/pax.1,v 1.12.2.10 2003/02/23 17:46:34 keramida Exp $
38 .\" $DragonFly: src/bin/pax/pax.1,v 1.4 2007/10/20 17:56:46 swildner Exp $
45 .Nd read and write file archives and copy directory hierarchies
113 .Op Fl b Ar blocksize
154 .Op Fl diklntuvDHLOPXYZ
185 utility will read, write, and list the members of an archive file,
186 and will copy directory hierarchies.
187 These operations are independent of the specific archive format,
188 and support a wide variety of different archive formats.
189 A list of supported archive formats can be found under the description of the
197 options specifies which of the following functional modes
200 .Em list , read , write ,
208 a table of contents of the members of the archive file read from
210 whose pathnames match the specified
212 The table of contents contains one filename per line
213 and is written using single line buffering.
216 Extract the members of the archive file read from the
218 with pathnames matching the specified
220 The archive format and blocking is automatically determined on input.
221 When an extracted file is a directory, the entire file hierarchy
222 rooted at that directory is extracted.
223 All extracted files are created relative to the current file hierarchy.
224 The setting of ownership, access and modification times, and file mode of
225 the extracted files are discussed in more detail under the
230 Write an archive containing the
234 using the specified archive format.
237 operands are specified, a list of files to copy with one per line is read from
241 operand is also a directory, the entire file hierarchy rooted
242 at that directory will be included.
247 operands to the destination
251 operands are specified, a list of files to copy with one per line is read from
256 operand is also a directory the entire file
257 hierarchy rooted at that directory will be included.
260 is as if the copied files were written to an archive file and then
261 subsequently extracted, except that there may be hard links between
262 the original and the copied files (see the
269 must not be one of the
271 operands or a member of a file hierarchy rooted at one of the
276 under these conditions is unpredictable.
279 While processing a damaged archive during a
285 will attempt to recover from media defects and will search through the archive
286 to locate and process the largest number of archive members possible (see the
288 option for more details on error handling).
292 operand specifies a destination directory pathname.
295 operand does not exist, or it is not writable by the user,
296 or it is not of type directory,
298 will exit with a non-zero exit status.
302 operand is used to select one or more pathnames of archive members.
303 Archive members are selected using the pattern matching notation described
308 operand is not supplied, all members of the archive will be selected.
311 matches a directory, the entire file hierarchy rooted at that directory will
315 operand does not select at least one archive member,
319 operands in a diagnostic message to
321 and then exit with a non-zero exit status.
325 operand specifies the pathname of a file to be copied or archived.
328 operand does not select at least one archive member,
332 operand pathnames in a diagnostic message to
334 and then exit with a non-zero exit status.
336 The following options are supported:
339 Read an archive file from
341 and extract the specified
343 If any intermediate directories are needed in order to extract an archive
344 member, these directories will be created as if
346 was called with the bitwise inclusive
349 .Dv S_IRWXU , S_IRWXG ,
352 as the mode argument.
353 When the selected archive format supports the specification of linked
354 files and these files cannot be linked while the archive is being extracted,
356 will write a diagnostic message to
358 and exit with a non-zero exit status at the completion of operation.
362 in the specified archive format.
365 operands are specified,
367 is read for a list of pathnames with one per line without any leading or
373 to the end of an archive that was previously written.
374 If an archive format is not specified with a
376 option, the format currently being used in the archive will be selected.
377 Any attempt to append to an archive in a format different from the
378 format already used in the archive will cause
381 with a non-zero exit status.
382 The blocking size used in the archive volume where writing starts
383 will continue to be used for the remainder of that archive volume.
386 Many storage devices are not able to support the operations necessary
387 to perform an append operation.
388 Any attempt to append to an archive stored on such a device may damage the
389 archive or have other unpredictable results.
390 Tape drives in particular are more likely to not support an append operation.
391 An archive stored in a regular file system file or on a disk device will
392 usually support an append operation.
393 .It Fl b Ar blocksize
397 block the output at a positive decimal integer number of
398 bytes per write to the archive file.
401 must be a multiple of 512 bytes with a maximum of 64512 bytes.
402 Archives larger than 32256 bytes violate the
404 standard and will not be portable to all systems.
411 to specify multiplication by 1024 (1K) or 512, respectively.
416 to indicate a product.
417 A specific archive device may impose additional restrictions on the size
418 of blocking it will support.
419 When blocking is not specified, the default
421 is dependent on the specific archive format being used (see the
425 Match all file or archive members
427 those specified by the
433 Cause files of type directory being copied or archived, or archive members of
434 type directory being extracted, to match only the directory file or archive
435 member and not the file hierarchy rooted at the directory.
439 as the pathname of the input or output archive, overriding the default
449 A single archive may span multiple files and different archive devices.
452 will prompt for the pathname of the file or device of the next volume in the
455 Interactively rename files or archive members.
456 For each archive member matching a
458 operand or each file matching a
464 giving the name of the file, its file mode and its modification time.
467 utility will then read a line from
469 If this line is blank, the file or archive member is skipped.
470 If this line consists of a single period, the
471 file or archive member is processed with no modification to its name.
472 Otherwise, its name is replaced with the contents of the line.
475 utility will immediately exit with a non-zero exit status if
477 is encountered when reading a response or if
479 cannot be opened for reading and writing.
481 Do not overwrite existing files.
489 hard links are made between the source and destination file hierarchies
492 Select the first archive member that matches each
495 No more than one archive member is matched for each
497 When members of type directory are matched, the file hierarchy rooted at that
498 directory is also matched (unless
502 Information to modify the algorithm for extracting or writing archive files
503 which is specific to the archive format specified by
510 Specify one or more file characteristic options (privileges).
513 option-argument is a string specifying file characteristics to be retained or
514 discarded on extraction.
515 The string consists of the specification characters
519 Multiple characteristics can be concatenated within the same string
522 options can be specified.
523 The meaning of the specification characters are as follows:
526 Do not preserve file access times.
527 By default, file access times are preserved whenever possible.
529 .Sq Preserve everything ,
530 the user ID, group ID, file mode bits,
531 file access time, and file modification time.
532 This is intended to be used by
534 someone with all the appropriate privileges, in order to preserve all
535 aspects of the files as they are recorded in the archive.
538 flag is the sum of the
544 Do not preserve file modification times.
545 By default, file modification times are preserved whenever possible.
547 Preserve the user ID and group ID.
551 This intended to be used by a
553 with regular privileges who wants to preserve all aspects of the file other
555 The file times are preserved by default, but two other flags are offered to
556 disable this and use the time of extraction instead.
559 In the preceding list,
561 indicates that an attribute stored in the archive is given to the
562 extracted file, subject to the permissions of the invoking
564 Otherwise the attribute of the extracted file is determined as
565 part of the normal file creation action.
570 specification character is specified, or the user ID and group ID are not
571 preserved for any reason,
579 bits of the file mode.
580 If the preservation of any of these items fails for any reason,
582 will write a diagnostic message to
584 Failure to preserve these items will affect the final exit status,
585 but will not cause the extracted file to be deleted.
586 If the file characteristic letters in any of the string option-arguments are
587 duplicated or conflict with each other, the one(s) given last will take
591 is specified, file modification times are still preserved.
593 Modify the file or archive member names specified by the
597 operands according to the substitution expression
599 using the syntax of the
601 utility regular expressions.
602 The format of these regular expressions are:
607 is a basic regular expression and
609 can contain an ampersand (&), \\n (where n is a digit) back-references,
610 or subexpression matching.
613 string may also contain
616 Any non-null character can be used as a delimiter (/ is shown here).
619 expressions can be specified.
620 The expressions are applied in the order they are specified on the
621 command line, terminating with the first successful substitution.
622 The optional trailing
624 continues to apply the substitution expression to the pathname substring
625 which starts with the first character following the end of the last successful
627 The first unsuccessful substitution stops the operation of the
630 The optional trailing
632 will cause the final result of a successful substitution to be written to
634 in the following format:
635 .Dl <original pathname> >> <new pathname>
636 File or archive member names that substitute to the empty string
637 are not selected and will be skipped.
639 Reset the access times of any file or directory read or accessed by
641 to be the same as they were before being read or accessed by
644 Ignore files that are older (having a less recent file modification time)
645 than a pre-existing file or archive member with the same name.
648 an archive member with the same name as a file in the file system will be
649 extracted if the archive member is newer than the file.
652 a file system member with the same name as an archive member will be
653 written to the archive if it is newer than the archive member.
656 the file in the destination hierarchy is replaced by the file in the source
657 hierarchy or by a link to the file in the source hierarchy if the file in
658 the source hierarchy is newer.
662 operation, produce a verbose table of contents using the format of the
667 For pathnames representing a hard link to a previous member of the archive,
668 the output has the format:
669 .Dl <ls -l listing> == <link name>
670 For pathnames representing a symbolic link, the output has the format:
671 .Dl <ls -l listing> => <link name>
672 Where <ls -l listing> is the output format specified by the
674 utility when used with the
677 Otherwise for all the other operational modes
681 pathnames are written and flushed to
685 as soon as processing begins on that file or
689 is not buffered, and is written only after the file has been read or written.
691 Specify the output archive format, with the default format being
695 utility currently supports the following formats:
696 .Bl -tag -width "sv4cpio"
698 The extended cpio interchange format specified in the
701 The default blocksize for this format is 5120 bytes.
702 Inode and device information about a file (used for detecting file hard links
703 by this format) which may be truncated by this format is detected by
707 The old binary cpio format.
708 The default blocksize for this format is 5120 bytes.
709 This format is not very portable and should not be used when other formats
711 Inode and device information about a file (used for detecting file hard links
712 by this format) which may be truncated by this format is detected by
716 The System V release 4 cpio.
717 The default blocksize for this format is 5120 bytes.
718 Inode and device information about a file (used for detecting file hard links
719 by this format) which may be truncated by this format is detected by
723 The System V release 4 cpio with file crc checksums.
724 The default blocksize for this format is 5120 bytes.
725 Inode and device information about a file (used for detecting file hard links
726 by this format) which may be truncated by this format is detected by
732 tar format as found in
734 The default blocksize for this format is 10240 bytes.
735 Pathnames stored by this format must be 100 characters or less in length.
739 .Em hard links , soft links ,
742 will be archived (other file system types are not supported).
743 For backwards compatibility with even older tar formats, a
745 option can be used when writing an archive to omit the storage of directories.
746 This option takes the form:
747 .Dl Fl o Cm write_opt=nodir
749 The extended tar interchange format specified in the
752 The default blocksize for this format is 10240 bytes.
753 Pathnames stored by this format must be 250 characters or less in length.
758 utility will detect and report any file that it is unable to store or extract
759 as the result of any specific archive format restrictions.
760 The individual archive formats may impose additional restrictions on use.
761 Typical archive format restrictions include (but are not limited to):
762 file pathname length, file size, link pathname length and the type of the file.
766 to compress (decompress) the archive while writing (reading).
770 Limit the number of bytes written to a single archive volume to
779 to specify multiplication by 1048576 (1M), 1024 (1K) or 512, respectively.
782 limits can be separated by
784 to indicate a product.
787 Only use this option when writing an archive to a device which supports
788 an end of file read condition based on last (or largest) write offset
789 (such as a regular file or a tape drive).
790 The use of this option with a floppy or hard disk is not recommended.
792 This option is the same as the
794 option, except that the file inode change time is checked instead of the
795 file modification time.
796 The file inode change time can be used to select files whose inode information
797 (e.g. uid, gid, etc.) is newer than a copy of the file in the destination
800 Limit the number of consecutive read faults while trying to read a flawed
806 will attempt to recover from an archive read error and will
807 continue processing starting with the next file stored in the archive.
812 to stop operation after the first read error is detected on an archive volume.
819 to attempt to recover from read errors forever.
822 is a small positive number of retries.
825 Using this option with
827 should be used with extreme caution as
829 may get stuck in an infinite loop on a very badly flawed archive.
831 Select a file based on its
833 name, or when starting with a
836 A '\\' can be used to escape the
840 options may be supplied and checking stops with the first match.
842 Follow only command line symbolic links while performing a physical file
845 Follow all symbolic links to perform a logical file system traversal.
847 Force the archive to be one volume. If a volume ends prematurely,
849 will not prompt for a new volume. This option can be useful for
850 automated tasks where error recovery cannot be performed by a human.
852 Do not follow symbolic links, perform a physical file system traversal.
853 This is the default mode.
854 .It Fl T Ar [from_date][,to_date][/[c][m]]
855 Allow files to be selected based on a file modification or inode change
856 time falling within a specified time range of
860 (the dates are inclusive).
863 is supplied, all files with a modification or inode change time
864 equal to or younger are selected.
867 is supplied, all files with a modification or inode change time
868 equal to or older will be selected.
873 only files with a modification or inode change time of exactly that
874 time will be selected.
882 mode, the optional trailing field
884 can be used to determine which file time (inode change, file modification or
885 both) are used in the comparison.
886 If neither is specified, the default is to use file modification time only.
889 specifies the comparison of file modification time (the time when
890 the file was last written).
893 specifies the comparison of inode change time (the time when the file
894 inode was last changed; e.g. a change of owner, group, mode, etc).
899 are both specified, then the modification and inode change times are
901 The inode change time comparison is useful in selecting files whose
902 attributes were recently changed or selecting files which were recently
903 created and had their modification time reset to an older time (as what
904 happens when a file is extracted from an archive and the modification time
906 Time comparisons using both file times is useful when
908 is used to create a time based incremental archive (only files that were
909 changed during a specified time range will be archived).
911 A time range is made up of six different fields and each field must contain two
914 .Dl [yy[mm[dd[hh]]]]mm[.ss]
917 is the last two digits of the year,
920 is the month (from 01 to 12),
922 is the day of the month (from 01 to 31),
924 is the hour of the day (from 00 to 23),
927 is the minute (from 00 to 59),
930 is the seconds (from 00 to 59).
933 is required, while the other fields are optional and must be added in the
935 .Dl Cm hh , dd , mm , yy .
938 field may be added independently of the other fields.
939 Time ranges are relative to the current time, so
941 would select all files with a modification or inode change time
942 of 12:34 PM today or later.
945 time range can be supplied and checking stops with the first match.
947 Select a file based on its
949 name, or when starting with a
952 A '\\' can be used to escape the
956 options may be supplied and checking stops with the first match.
958 When traversing the file hierarchy specified by a pathname,
959 do not descend into directories that have a different device ID.
962 field as described in
964 for more information about device ID's.
966 This option is the same as the
968 option, except that the inode change time is checked using the
969 pathname created after all the file name modifications have completed.
971 This option is the same as the
973 option, except that the modification time is checked using the
974 pathname created after all the file name modifications have completed.
977 The options that operate on the names of files or archive members
993 When extracting files during a
995 operation, archive members are
997 based only on the user specified pattern operands as modified by the
1010 options will modify in that order, the names of these selected files.
1015 options will be applied based on the final pathname.
1018 option will write the names resulting from these modifications.
1020 When archiving files during a
1022 operation, or copying files during a
1024 operation, archive members are
1026 based only on the user specified pathnames as modified by the
1036 option only applies during a copy operation).
1041 options will modify in that order, the names of these selected files.
1048 options will be applied based on the final pathname.
1051 option will write the names resulting from these modifications.
1053 When one or both of the
1057 options are specified along with the
1059 option, a file is not considered selected unless it is newer
1060 than the file to which it is compared.
1063 .Dl "pax -w -f /dev/rst0 ."
1064 copies the contents of the current directory to the device
1068 .Dl pax -v -f filename
1069 gives the verbose table of contents for an archive stored in
1072 The following commands:
1075 .Dl pax -rw .\ /tmp/to
1076 will copy the entire
1078 directory hierarchy to
1082 .Dl pax -r -s ',^//*usr//*,,' -f a.pax
1085 with all files rooted in ``/usr'' into the archive extracted relative to the
1089 .Dl pax -rw -i .\ dest_dir
1090 can be used to interactively select the files to copy from the current
1095 .Dl pax -r -pe -U root -G bin -f a.pax
1096 will extract all files from the archive
1102 and will preserve all file permissions.
1105 .Dl pax -r -w -v -Y -Z home /backup
1106 will update (and list) only those files in the destination directory
1108 which are older (less recent inode change or file modification times) than
1109 files with the same name found in the source file tree
1114 utility will exit with one of the following values:
1117 All files were processed successfully.
1124 cannot create a file or a link when reading an archive or cannot
1125 find a file when writing an archive, or cannot preserve the user ID,
1126 group ID, or file mode when the
1128 option is specified, a diagnostic message is written to
1130 and a non-zero exit status will be returned, but processing will continue.
1133 cannot create a link to a file,
1135 will not create a second copy of the file.
1137 If the extraction of a file from an archive is prematurely terminated by
1140 may have only partially extracted a file the user wanted.
1141 Additionally, the file modes of extracted files and directories
1142 may have incorrect file bits, and the modification and access times may be
1145 If the creation of an archive is prematurely terminated by a signal or error,
1147 may have only partially created the archive which may violate the specific
1148 archive format specification.
1153 detects a file is about to overwrite itself, the file is not copied,
1154 a diagnostic message is written to
1158 completes it will exit with a non-zero exit status.
1165 utility is a superset of the
1187 and the flawed archive handling during
1191 operations are extensions to the
1201 at the University of California, San Diego