cpio Command Examples

Copy files in and out of archives. Supports the following archive formats: cpio's custom binary, old ASCII, new ASCII, crc, HPUX binary, HPUX old ASCII, old tar, and POSIX.1 tar. More information: https://www.gnu.org/software/cpio.

• Take a list of file names from stdin and add them [o]nto an archive in cpio's binary format:

echo "{{path/to/file1 path/to/file2 ...}}" | cpio -o > {{archive.cpio}}

• Copy all files and directories in a directory and add them [o]nto an archive, in [v]erbose mode:

find {{path/to/directory}} | cpio -ov > {{archive.cpio}}

• P[i]ck all files from an archive, generating [d]irectories where needed, in [v]erbose mode:

cpio -idv < {{archive.cpio}}