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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32 .\" @(#)pax.1 8.4 (Berkeley) 4/18/94
33 .\" $FreeBSD: src/bin/pax/pax.1,v 1.12.2.10 2003/02/23 17:46:34 keramida Exp $
34 .\" $DragonFly: src/bin/pax/pax.1,v 1.4 2007/10/20 17:56:46 swildner Exp $
41 .Nd read and write file archives and copy directory hierarchies
109 .Op Fl b Ar blocksize
150 .Op Fl diklntuvDHLOPXYZ
181 utility will read, write, and list the members of an archive file,
182 and will copy directory hierarchies.
183 These operations are independent of the specific archive format,
184 and support a wide variety of different archive formats.
185 A list of supported archive formats can be found under the description of the
193 options specifies which of the following functional modes
196 .Em list , read , write ,
204 a table of contents of the members of the archive file read from
206 whose pathnames match the specified
208 The table of contents contains one filename per line
209 and is written using single line buffering.
212 Extract the members of the archive file read from the
214 with pathnames matching the specified
216 The archive format and blocking is automatically determined on input.
217 When an extracted file is a directory, the entire file hierarchy
218 rooted at that directory is extracted.
219 All extracted files are created relative to the current file hierarchy.
220 The setting of ownership, access and modification times, and file mode of
221 the extracted files are discussed in more detail under the
226 Write an archive containing the
230 using the specified archive format.
233 operands are specified, a list of files to copy with one per line is read from
237 operand is also a directory, the entire file hierarchy rooted
238 at that directory will be included.
243 operands to the destination
247 operands are specified, a list of files to copy with one per line is read from
252 operand is also a directory the entire file
253 hierarchy rooted at that directory will be included.
256 is as if the copied files were written to an archive file and then
257 subsequently extracted, except that there may be hard links between
258 the original and the copied files (see the
265 must not be one of the
267 operands or a member of a file hierarchy rooted at one of the
272 under these conditions is unpredictable.
275 While processing a damaged archive during a
281 will attempt to recover from media defects and will search through the archive
282 to locate and process the largest number of archive members possible (see the
284 option for more details on error handling).
288 operand specifies a destination directory pathname.
291 operand does not exist, or it is not writable by the user,
292 or it is not of type directory,
294 will exit with a non-zero exit status.
298 operand is used to select one or more pathnames of archive members.
299 Archive members are selected using the pattern matching notation described
304 operand is not supplied, all members of the archive will be selected.
307 matches a directory, the entire file hierarchy rooted at that directory will
311 operand does not select at least one archive member,
315 operands in a diagnostic message to
317 and then exit with a non-zero exit status.
321 operand specifies the pathname of a file to be copied or archived.
324 operand does not select at least one archive member,
328 operand pathnames in a diagnostic message to
330 and then exit with a non-zero exit status.
332 The following options are supported:
335 Read an archive file from
337 and extract the specified
339 If any intermediate directories are needed in order to extract an archive
340 member, these directories will be created as if
342 was called with the bitwise inclusive
345 .Dv S_IRWXU , S_IRWXG ,
348 as the mode argument.
349 When the selected archive format supports the specification of linked
350 files and these files cannot be linked while the archive is being extracted,
352 will write a diagnostic message to
354 and exit with a non-zero exit status at the completion of operation.
358 in the specified archive format.
361 operands are specified,
363 is read for a list of pathnames with one per line without any leading or
369 to the end of an archive that was previously written.
370 If an archive format is not specified with a
372 option, the format currently being used in the archive will be selected.
373 Any attempt to append to an archive in a format different from the
374 format already used in the archive will cause
377 with a non-zero exit status.
378 The blocking size used in the archive volume where writing starts
379 will continue to be used for the remainder of that archive volume.
382 Many storage devices are not able to support the operations necessary
383 to perform an append operation.
384 Any attempt to append to an archive stored on such a device may damage the
385 archive or have other unpredictable results.
386 Tape drives in particular are more likely to not support an append operation.
387 An archive stored in a regular file system file or on a disk device will
388 usually support an append operation.
389 .It Fl b Ar blocksize
393 block the output at a positive decimal integer number of
394 bytes per write to the archive file.
397 must be a multiple of 512 bytes with a maximum of 64512 bytes.
398 Archives larger than 32256 bytes violate the
400 standard and will not be portable to all systems.
407 to specify multiplication by 1024 (1K) or 512, respectively.
412 to indicate a product.
413 A specific archive device may impose additional restrictions on the size
414 of blocking it will support.
415 When blocking is not specified, the default
417 is dependent on the specific archive format being used (see the
421 Match all file or archive members
423 those specified by the
429 Cause files of type directory being copied or archived, or archive members of
430 type directory being extracted, to match only the directory file or archive
431 member and not the file hierarchy rooted at the directory.
435 as the pathname of the input or output archive, overriding the default
445 A single archive may span multiple files and different archive devices.
448 will prompt for the pathname of the file or device of the next volume in the
451 Interactively rename files or archive members.
452 For each archive member matching a
454 operand or each file matching a
460 giving the name of the file, its file mode and its modification time.
463 utility will then read a line from
465 If this line is blank, the file or archive member is skipped.
466 If this line consists of a single period, the
467 file or archive member is processed with no modification to its name.
468 Otherwise, its name is replaced with the contents of the line.
471 utility will immediately exit with a non-zero exit status if
473 is encountered when reading a response or if
475 cannot be opened for reading and writing.
477 Do not overwrite existing files.
485 hard links are made between the source and destination file hierarchies
488 Select the first archive member that matches each
491 No more than one archive member is matched for each
493 When members of type directory are matched, the file hierarchy rooted at that
494 directory is also matched (unless
498 Information to modify the algorithm for extracting or writing archive files
499 which is specific to the archive format specified by
506 Specify one or more file characteristic options (privileges).
509 option-argument is a string specifying file characteristics to be retained or
510 discarded on extraction.
511 The string consists of the specification characters
515 Multiple characteristics can be concatenated within the same string
518 options can be specified.
519 The meaning of the specification characters are as follows:
522 Do not preserve file access times.
523 By default, file access times are preserved whenever possible.
525 .Sq Preserve everything ,
526 the user ID, group ID, file mode bits,
527 file access time, and file modification time.
528 This is intended to be used by
530 someone with all the appropriate privileges, in order to preserve all
531 aspects of the files as they are recorded in the archive.
534 flag is the sum of the
540 Do not preserve file modification times.
541 By default, file modification times are preserved whenever possible.
543 Preserve the user ID and group ID.
547 This intended to be used by a
549 with regular privileges who wants to preserve all aspects of the file other
551 The file times are preserved by default, but two other flags are offered to
552 disable this and use the time of extraction instead.
555 In the preceding list,
557 indicates that an attribute stored in the archive is given to the
558 extracted file, subject to the permissions of the invoking
560 Otherwise the attribute of the extracted file is determined as
561 part of the normal file creation action.
566 specification character is specified, or the user ID and group ID are not
567 preserved for any reason,
575 bits of the file mode.
576 If the preservation of any of these items fails for any reason,
578 will write a diagnostic message to
580 Failure to preserve these items will affect the final exit status,
581 but will not cause the extracted file to be deleted.
582 If the file characteristic letters in any of the string option-arguments are
583 duplicated or conflict with each other, the one(s) given last will take
587 is specified, file modification times are still preserved.
589 Modify the file or archive member names specified by the
593 operands according to the substitution expression
595 using the syntax of the
597 utility regular expressions.
598 The format of these regular expressions are:
603 is a basic regular expression and
605 can contain an ampersand (&), \\n (where n is a digit) back-references,
606 or subexpression matching.
609 string may also contain
612 Any non-null character can be used as a delimiter (/ is shown here).
615 expressions can be specified.
616 The expressions are applied in the order they are specified on the
617 command line, terminating with the first successful substitution.
618 The optional trailing
620 continues to apply the substitution expression to the pathname substring
621 which starts with the first character following the end of the last successful
623 The first unsuccessful substitution stops the operation of the
626 The optional trailing
628 will cause the final result of a successful substitution to be written to
630 in the following format:
631 .Dl <original pathname> >> <new pathname>
632 File or archive member names that substitute to the empty string
633 are not selected and will be skipped.
635 Reset the access times of any file or directory read or accessed by
637 to be the same as they were before being read or accessed by
640 Ignore files that are older (having a less recent file modification time)
641 than a pre-existing file or archive member with the same name.
644 an archive member with the same name as a file in the file system will be
645 extracted if the archive member is newer than the file.
648 a file system member with the same name as an archive member will be
649 written to the archive if it is newer than the archive member.
652 the file in the destination hierarchy is replaced by the file in the source
653 hierarchy or by a link to the file in the source hierarchy if the file in
654 the source hierarchy is newer.
658 operation, produce a verbose table of contents using the format of the
663 For pathnames representing a hard link to a previous member of the archive,
664 the output has the format:
665 .Dl <ls -l listing> == <link name>
666 For pathnames representing a symbolic link, the output has the format:
667 .Dl <ls -l listing> => <link name>
668 Where <ls -l listing> is the output format specified by the
670 utility when used with the
673 Otherwise for all the other operational modes
677 pathnames are written and flushed to
681 as soon as processing begins on that file or
685 is not buffered, and is written only after the file has been read or written.
687 Specify the output archive format, with the default format being
691 utility currently supports the following formats:
692 .Bl -tag -width "sv4cpio"
694 The extended cpio interchange format specified in the
697 The default blocksize for this format is 5120 bytes.
698 Inode and device information about a file (used for detecting file hard links
699 by this format) which may be truncated by this format is detected by
703 The old binary cpio format.
704 The default blocksize for this format is 5120 bytes.
705 This format is not very portable and should not be used when other formats
707 Inode and device information about a file (used for detecting file hard links
708 by this format) which may be truncated by this format is detected by
712 The System V release 4 cpio.
713 The default blocksize for this format is 5120 bytes.
714 Inode and device information about a file (used for detecting file hard links
715 by this format) which may be truncated by this format is detected by
719 The System V release 4 cpio with file crc checksums.
720 The default blocksize for this format is 5120 bytes.
721 Inode and device information about a file (used for detecting file hard links
722 by this format) which may be truncated by this format is detected by
728 tar format as found in
730 The default blocksize for this format is 10240 bytes.
731 Pathnames stored by this format must be 100 characters or less in length.
735 .Em hard links , soft links ,
738 will be archived (other file system types are not supported).
739 For backwards compatibility with even older tar formats, a
741 option can be used when writing an archive to omit the storage of directories.
742 This option takes the form:
743 .Dl Fl o Cm write_opt=nodir
745 The extended tar interchange format specified in the
748 The default blocksize for this format is 10240 bytes.
749 Pathnames stored by this format must be 250 characters or less in length.
754 utility will detect and report any file that it is unable to store or extract
755 as the result of any specific archive format restrictions.
756 The individual archive formats may impose additional restrictions on use.
757 Typical archive format restrictions include (but are not limited to):
758 file pathname length, file size, link pathname length and the type of the file.
762 to compress (decompress) the archive while writing (reading).
766 Limit the number of bytes written to a single archive volume to
775 to specify multiplication by 1048576 (1M), 1024 (1K) or 512, respectively.
778 limits can be separated by
780 to indicate a product.
783 Only use this option when writing an archive to a device which supports
784 an end of file read condition based on last (or largest) write offset
785 (such as a regular file or a tape drive).
786 The use of this option with a floppy or hard disk is not recommended.
788 This option is the same as the
790 option, except that the file inode change time is checked instead of the
791 file modification time.
792 The file inode change time can be used to select files whose inode information
793 (e.g. uid, gid, etc.) is newer than a copy of the file in the destination
796 Limit the number of consecutive read faults while trying to read a flawed
802 will attempt to recover from an archive read error and will
803 continue processing starting with the next file stored in the archive.
808 to stop operation after the first read error is detected on an archive volume.
815 to attempt to recover from read errors forever.
818 is a small positive number of retries.
821 Using this option with
823 should be used with extreme caution as
825 may get stuck in an infinite loop on a very badly flawed archive.
827 Select a file based on its
829 name, or when starting with a
832 A '\\' can be used to escape the
836 options may be supplied and checking stops with the first match.
838 Follow only command line symbolic links while performing a physical file
841 Follow all symbolic links to perform a logical file system traversal.
843 Force the archive to be one volume. If a volume ends prematurely,
845 will not prompt for a new volume. This option can be useful for
846 automated tasks where error recovery cannot be performed by a human.
848 Do not follow symbolic links, perform a physical file system traversal.
849 This is the default mode.
850 .It Fl T Ar [from_date][,to_date][/[c][m]]
851 Allow files to be selected based on a file modification or inode change
852 time falling within a specified time range of
856 (the dates are inclusive).
859 is supplied, all files with a modification or inode change time
860 equal to or younger are selected.
863 is supplied, all files with a modification or inode change time
864 equal to or older will be selected.
869 only files with a modification or inode change time of exactly that
870 time will be selected.
878 mode, the optional trailing field
880 can be used to determine which file time (inode change, file modification or
881 both) are used in the comparison.
882 If neither is specified, the default is to use file modification time only.
885 specifies the comparison of file modification time (the time when
886 the file was last written).
889 specifies the comparison of inode change time (the time when the file
890 inode was last changed; e.g. a change of owner, group, mode, etc).
895 are both specified, then the modification and inode change times are
897 The inode change time comparison is useful in selecting files whose
898 attributes were recently changed or selecting files which were recently
899 created and had their modification time reset to an older time (as what
900 happens when a file is extracted from an archive and the modification time
902 Time comparisons using both file times is useful when
904 is used to create a time based incremental archive (only files that were
905 changed during a specified time range will be archived).
907 A time range is made up of six different fields and each field must contain two
910 .Dl [yy[mm[dd[hh]]]]mm[.ss]
913 is the last two digits of the year,
916 is the month (from 01 to 12),
918 is the day of the month (from 01 to 31),
920 is the hour of the day (from 00 to 23),
923 is the minute (from 00 to 59),
926 is the seconds (from 00 to 59).
929 is required, while the other fields are optional and must be added in the
931 .Dl Cm hh , dd , mm , yy .
934 field may be added independently of the other fields.
935 Time ranges are relative to the current time, so
937 would select all files with a modification or inode change time
938 of 12:34 PM today or later.
941 time range can be supplied and checking stops with the first match.
943 Select a file based on its
945 name, or when starting with a
948 A '\\' can be used to escape the
952 options may be supplied and checking stops with the first match.
954 When traversing the file hierarchy specified by a pathname,
955 do not descend into directories that have a different device ID.
958 field as described in
960 for more information about device ID's.
962 This option is the same as the
964 option, except that the inode change time is checked using the
965 pathname created after all the file name modifications have completed.
967 This option is the same as the
969 option, except that the modification time is checked using the
970 pathname created after all the file name modifications have completed.
973 The options that operate on the names of files or archive members
989 When extracting files during a
991 operation, archive members are
993 based only on the user specified pattern operands as modified by the
1006 options will modify in that order, the names of these selected files.
1011 options will be applied based on the final pathname.
1014 option will write the names resulting from these modifications.
1016 When archiving files during a
1018 operation, or copying files during a
1020 operation, archive members are
1022 based only on the user specified pathnames as modified by the
1032 option only applies during a copy operation).
1037 options will modify in that order, the names of these selected files.
1044 options will be applied based on the final pathname.
1047 option will write the names resulting from these modifications.
1049 When one or both of the
1053 options are specified along with the
1055 option, a file is not considered selected unless it is newer
1056 than the file to which it is compared.
1059 .Dl "pax -w -f /dev/rst0 ."
1060 copies the contents of the current directory to the device
1064 .Dl pax -v -f filename
1065 gives the verbose table of contents for an archive stored in
1068 The following commands:
1071 .Dl pax -rw .\ /tmp/to
1072 will copy the entire
1074 directory hierarchy to
1078 .Dl pax -r -s ',^//*usr//*,,' -f a.pax
1081 with all files rooted in ``/usr'' into the archive extracted relative to the
1085 .Dl pax -rw -i .\ dest_dir
1086 can be used to interactively select the files to copy from the current
1091 .Dl pax -r -pe -U root -G bin -f a.pax
1092 will extract all files from the archive
1098 and will preserve all file permissions.
1101 .Dl pax -r -w -v -Y -Z home /backup
1102 will update (and list) only those files in the destination directory
1104 which are older (less recent inode change or file modification times) than
1105 files with the same name found in the source file tree
1110 utility will exit with one of the following values:
1113 All files were processed successfully.
1120 cannot create a file or a link when reading an archive or cannot
1121 find a file when writing an archive, or cannot preserve the user ID,
1122 group ID, or file mode when the
1124 option is specified, a diagnostic message is written to
1126 and a non-zero exit status will be returned, but processing will continue.
1129 cannot create a link to a file,
1131 will not create a second copy of the file.
1133 If the extraction of a file from an archive is prematurely terminated by
1136 may have only partially extracted a file the user wanted.
1137 Additionally, the file modes of extracted files and directories
1138 may have incorrect file bits, and the modification and access times may be
1141 If the creation of an archive is prematurely terminated by a signal or error,
1143 may have only partially created the archive which may violate the specific
1144 archive format specification.
1149 detects a file is about to overwrite itself, the file is not copied,
1150 a diagnostic message is written to
1154 completes it will exit with a non-zero exit status.
1161 utility is a superset of the
1183 and the flawed archive handling during
1187 operations are extensions to the
1197 at the University of California, San Diego