.H 1 pax

.B pax

is a POSIX 1003.2 conformant replacement for

.B tar

and

.B cpio

that handles most UNIX archive and tape formats.

.B pax

uses the

.I vdelta

algorithm to construct efficient delta archives that contain bytewise

changes from a given base archive.

.B gzip

and

.B compress

archives are also handled on input and output.

.P

To create a

.I vdelta

compressed base archive:

.EX

tw | pax -w -f base -z -

.EE

To create a delta archive on the base above (record file changes only):

.EX

tw | pax -w -f delta -z base

.EE

To read the delta archive:

.EX

pax -r -f delta -z base

.EE

To create a delta archive from linux-1.2.0 to linux-1.2.5:

.EX

pax -rf linux-1.2.5.tar.gz -wf 0-5.pax.gz -x gzip -z linux-1.2.0.tar.gz

.EE

To create the linux-1.2.5 archive:

.EX

pax -rf 0-5.pax.gz -z linux-1.2.0.tar.gz -wf linux-1.2.5.tar.gz -x tar -x gzip

.EE

The

.B bax

script, shipped with

.BR pax ,

combines

.B tw

and

.B pax

for handy backup control.