| "-0, --null" |
| | In copy-out and copy-pass modes, read a list of filenames terminated by a null character instead of a newline, so that files whose names contain newlines can be archived. GNU find is one way to produce a list of null-terminated filenames. |
| "-a, --reset-access-time" |
| | Reset the access times of files after reading them, so that it does not look like they have just been read. |
| "-A, --append" |
| | Append to an existing archive. Only works in copy-out mode. The archive must be a disk file specified with the -O or "-F (--file)" option. |
| "-b, --swap" |
| | In copy-in mode, swap both halfwords of words and bytes of halfwords in the data. Equivalent to "-sS". Use this option to convert 32-bit integers between big-endian and little-endian machines. |
| "-B" | Set the I/O block size to 5120 bytes. Initially the block size is 512 bytes. |
| "--block-size=BLOCK-SIZE" |
| | Set the I/O block size to BLOCK-SIZE * 512 bytes. |
| "-c" | Use the old portable (ASCII) archive format. |
| "-C IO-SIZE, --io-size=IO-SIZE" |
| | Set the I/O block size to IO-SIZE bytes. |
| "-d, --make-directories" |
| | Create leading directories where needed. |
| "-E FILE, --pattern-file=FILE" |
| | In copy-in mode, read additional patterns specifying filenames to extract or list from FILE. The lines of FILE are treated as if they had been non-option arguments to cpio. |
| "-f, --nonmatching" |
| | Only copy files that do not match any of the given patterns. |
| "-F, --file=archive" |
| | Archive filename to use instead of standard input or output. To use a tape drive on another machine as the archive, use a filename that starts with ‘HOSTNAME:’. The hostname can be preceded by a username and an ‘@’ to access the remote tape drive as that user, if you have permission to do so (typically an entry in that user’s ‘~/.rhosts’ file). |
| "--force-local" |
| | With -F, -I, or -O, take the archive file name to be a local file even if it contains a colon, which would ordinarily indicate a remote host name. |
| "-H FORMAT, --format=FORMAT" |
| | Use archive format FORMAT. The valid formats are listed below; the same names are also recognized in all-caps. The default in copy-in mode is to automatically detect the archive format, and in copy-out mode is "bin". --> |
|
| bin | The obsolete binary format. | | odc | The old (POSIX.1) portable format. | | newc | The new (SVR4) portable format, which supports file systems having more than 65536 i-nodes. | | crc | The new (SVR4) portable format with a checksum added. | | tar | The old tar format. | | ustar | The POSIX.1 tar format. Also recognizes GNU tar archives, which are similar but not identical. | | hpbin | The obsolete binary format used by HPUX’s cpio (which stores device files differently). | | hpodc | The portable format used by HPUX’s cpio (which stores device files differently). | |
|
| "-i, --extract" |
| | Run in copy-in mode. |
| "-I archive" |
| | Archive filename to use instead of standard input. To use a tape drive on another machine as the archive, use a filename that starts with ‘HOSTNAME:’. The hostname can be preceded by a username and an ‘@’ to access the remote tape drive as that user, if you have permission to do so (typically an entry in that user’s ‘~/.rhosts’ file). |
| -k | Ignored; for compatibility with other versions of cpio. |
| "-l, --link" |
| | Link files instead of copying them, when possible (usable only with the -p option). |
| "-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 MESSAGE, --message=MESSAGE" |
| | Print MESSAGE when the end of a volume of the backup media (such as a tape or a floppy disk) is reached, to prompt the user to insert a new volume. If MESSAGE contains the string "%d", it is replaced by the current volume number (starting at 1). |
| "-n, --numeric-uid-gid" |
| | In the verbose table of contents listing, show numeric UID and GID instead of translating them into names. |
| " --no-absolute-filenames" |
| | In copy-in mode, create all files relative to the current directory, even if they have an absolute file name in the archive. |
| " --no-preserve-owner" |
| | In copy-in mode and copy-pass mode, do not change the ownership of the files; leave them owned by the user extracting them. This is the default for non-root users, so that users on System V don’t inadvertently give away files. |
| "-o, --create" |
| | Run in copy-out mode. |
| "-O archive" |
| | Archive filename to use instead of standard output. To use a tape drive on another machine as the archive, use a filename that starts with ‘HOSTNAME:’. The hostname can be preceded by a username and an ‘@’ to access the remote tape drive as that user, if you have permission to do so (typically an entry in that user’s ‘~/.rhosts’ file). |
| " --only-verify-crc" |
| | When reading a CRC format archive in copy-in mode, only verify the CRC’s of each file in the archive, don’t actually extract the files. |
| "-p, --pass-through" |
| | Run in copy-pass mode. |
| "--quiet" |
| | Do not print the number of blocks copied. |
| "-r, --rename" |
| | Interactively rename files. |
| "-R [user][:.][group], --owner [user][:.][group]" |
| | In copy-out and copy-pass modes, set the ownership of all files created to the specified user and/or group. Either the user or the group, or both, must be present. If the group is omitted but the ":" or "." separator is given, use the given user’s login group. Only the super-user can change files’ ownership. |
| "--sparse" |
| | In copy-out and copy-pass modes, write files with large blocks of zeros as sparse files. |
| "-s, --swap-bytes" |
| | In copy-in mode, swap the bytes of each halfword (pair of bytes) in the files. |
| "-S, --swap-halfwords" |
| | In copy-in mode, swap the halfwords of each word (4 bytes) in the files. |
| "-t, --list" |
| | Print a table of contents of the input. |
| "-u, --unconditional" |
| | Replace all files, without asking whether to replace existing newer files with older files. |
| "-v, --verbose" |
| | List the files processed, or with -t, give an ‘ls -l’ style table of contents listing. In a verbose table of contents of a ustar archive, user and group names in the archive that do not exist on the local system are replaced by the names that correspond locally to the numeric UID and GID stored in the archive. |
| "-V --dot" | Print a "." for each file processed. |
| "--version" |
| | Print the cpio program version number and exit. |
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