CPIO(1L)

NAME
cpio - copy files to and from archives

SYNOPSIS
cpio {-o|--create} [-0acvABLV] [-C bytes] [-H format] [-M message] [-O [[user@]host:]archive] [-F [[user@]host:]archive] [--file=[[user@]host:]archive] [--format=format] [--message=message] [--null] [--reset-access-time] [--verbose] [--dot] [--append] [--block-size=blocks] [--dereference] [--io-size=bytes] [--quiet] [--force-local] [--rsh-command=command] [--help] [--version] < name-list [> archive] cpio {-i|--extract} [-bcdfmnrtsuvBSV] [-C bytes] [-E file] [-H format] [-M message] [-R [user][:.][group]] [-I [[user@]host:]archive] [-F [[user@]host:]archive] [--file=[[user@]host:]archive] [--make-directories] [--nonmatching] [--preserve-modification-time] [--numeric-uid-gid] [--rename] [-t|--list] [--swap-bytes] [--swap] [--dot] [--unconditional] [--verbose] [--block-size=blocks] [--swap-halfwords] [--io-size=bytes] [--pattern-file=file] [--format=format] [--owner=[user][:.][group]] [--no-preserve-owner] [--message=message] [--force-local] [--absolute-filenames] [--sparse] [--only-verify-crc] [--quiet] [--rsh-command=command] [--help] [--version] [pattern...] [< archive] cpio {-p|--pass-through} [-0adlmuvLV] [-R [user][:.][group]] [--null] [--reset-access-time] [--make-directories] [--link] [--quiet] [--preserve-modification-time] [--unconditional] [--verbose] [--dot] [--dereference] [--owner=[user][:.][group]] [--no-preserve-owner] [--sparse] [--help] [--version] destination-directory < name-list

DESCRIPTION
GNU cpio is fully documented in the texinfo documentation. To access the help from your command line, type

info cpio

The online copy of the documentation is available at the following address:

http://www.gnu.org/software/cpio/manual

KNOWN ISSUES
The cpio utility uses a default block size of 512 bytes for I/O operations. If a tape device does not support this block size, cpio may fail with the following error message:
    cpio: read error: Cannot allocate memory
To work around this issue, modify the default block size with the --block-size long option.