cpio: 3.3 Copy-pass mode

3.3 Copy-pass mode

In copy-pass mode, cpio copies files from one directory tree to another, combining the copy-out and copy-in steps without actually using an archive. It reads the list of files to copy from the standard input; the directory into which it will copy them is given as a non-option argument.

This mode is requested by the ‘-p’ (‘--pass-through’) command line option.

The following options are valid in copy-out mode:

‘-0’
‘--null’: Filenames in the list are delimited by ASCII null characters instead of newlines.
‘-a’
‘--reset-access-time’: Reset the access times of files after reading them.
‘-b’
‘--swap’: Swap both halfwords of words and bytes of halfwords in the data. Equivalent to ‘-sS’.
‘--block-size=block-size’: Sets the I/O block size to block-size * 512 bytes.
‘-B’: Set the I/O block size to 5120 bytes.
‘-c’: Use the old portable (ASCII) archive format.
‘-C number’
‘--io-size=number’: Set the I/O block size to the given number of bytes.
‘-d’
‘--make-directories’: Create leading directories where needed.
‘--device-independent’
‘--reproducible’: Create reproducible archives. This is equivalent to ‘--ignore-devno --ignore-dirnlink --renumber-inodes’.
‘-D dir’
‘--directory=dir’: Change to directory dir
‘-E file’
‘--pattern-file=file’: Read additional patterns specifying filenames to extract or list from file.
‘-f’
‘--nonmatching’: Only copy files that do not match any of the given patterns.
‘-F [[user@]host:]archive-file’
‘-O [[user@]host:]archive-file’
‘--file=[[user@]host:]archive-file’: Use the supplied archive-file instead of standard input. Optional user and host specify the user and host names in case of a remote archive.
‘--force-local’: Treat the archive file as local, even if its name contains colons.
‘-H format’
‘--format=format’: Use given archive format. See format, for a list of available formats.
‘--ignore-devno’: Store 0 in the device number field of each archive member, instead of the actual device number.
‘--ignore-dirnlink’: Store 2 in the nlink field of each directory archive member, instead of the actual number of links.
‘-l’
‘--link’: Link files instead of copying them, when possible.
‘-L’
‘--dereference’: Dereference symbolic links (copy the files that they point to instead of copying the links).
‘-m’
‘--preserve-modification-time’: Retain previous file modification times when creating files.
‘-M string’
‘--message=string’: Print string when the end of a volume of the backup media is reached.
‘-n’
‘--numeric-uid-gid’: In the verbose table of contents listing, show numeric UID and GID values.
‘--no-preserve-owner’: Do not change the ownership of the files.
‘--only-verify-crc’: When reading a CRC format archive, only verify the CRC’s of each file in the archive, don’t actually extract the files
‘--quiet’: Do not print the number of blocks copied.
‘--rsh-command=command’: Use command instead of rsh to access remote archives.
‘-r’
‘--rename’: Interactively rename files
‘--renumber-inodes’: Renumber inodes when storing them in the archive.
‘-R’
‘--owner=[user][:.][group]’: Set the ownership of all files created to the specified user and/or group. See owner.
‘-s’
‘--swap-bytes’: Swap the bytes of each halfword in the files
‘--sparse’: Write files with large blocks of zeros as sparse files.
‘-S’
‘--swap-halfwords’: Swap the halfwords of each word (4 bytes) in the files
‘--to-stdout’: Extract files to standard output.
‘-u’
‘--unconditional’: Replace all files unconditionally.
‘-v’
‘--verbose’: Verbosely list the files processed.
‘-V’
‘--dot’: Print a ‘.’ for each file processed.
‘-W’
‘--warning=flag’: Control warning display. Argument is one of ‘none’, ‘truncate’, ‘no-truncate’ or ‘all’. See warning, for a detailed discussion of these.

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