\"

\" G. S. Fowler

\" AT&T Bell Laboratories

\"

\" @(#)pax.1 (ulysses!gsf) 08/08/88

\"

.TH PAX 1

.SH NAME

pax \- portable archive interchange

.SH SYNOPSIS

.B pax

[

.B \-rcimopuvy

] [

.B \-f

.I archive

] [

.B \-s

.RI / old / new /[gp]

] [

.B \-t

.I device

] [

.I "pattern ..."

]

.LP

.B pax

.B \-w

[

.B adimuvy

] [

.B \-b

.I blocking

] [

.B \-f

.I archive

] [

.B \-s

.RI / old / new /[gp]

] [

.B \-t

.I device

] [

.B \-x

.I format

] [

.I "pathname ..."

]

.LP

.B pax

.B \-rw

[

.B ilmopuvy

] [

.B \-s

.RI / old / new /[gp]

] [

.I "pathname ..."

]

.I directory

.SH DESCRIPTION

.I pax

reads and writes archive files in the

.IR cpio (5)

and

.IR tar (5)

formats.

There are four operation modes controlled by combinations of the

.B \-r

and

.B \-w

options.

.PP

.B "pax \-w"

writes the files and directories named by the

.I pathname

arguments to the standard output together with

pathname and status information.

A directory

.I pathname

argument refers to the files and (recursively) subdirectories

of that directory.

If no

.I pathname

arguments are given then the standard input is read to get

a list of pathnames to copy, one pathname per line.

In this case only those pathnames appearing on the standard input are copied.

.PP

.B "pax \-r"

reads files from the standard input that is assumed

to be the result of a previous

.B "pax \-w"

command.

Only files with names that match any of the

.I pattern

arguments are selected.

A

.I pattern

is given in the name-generating notation of

.IR sh (1),

except that the

.B /

character is also matched.

The default if no

.I pattern

is given is

.BR * ,

which selects all files.

The selected files are conditionally created and copied relative

to the current directory tree, subject to the options described below.

By default the owner and group of selected files will be that of the

current user, and the permissions and modify times will be the same

as those in the archive.

If the

.B \-r

option is omitted then a table of contents of the selected files is

listed on the standard error.

.PP

.B "pax \-rw"

reads the files and directories named in the

.I pathname

arguments and copies them to the destination

.IR directory .

A directory

.I pathname

argument refers to the files and (recursively) subdirectories

of that directory.

If no

.I pathname

arguments are given then the standard input is read to get

a list of pathnames to copy, one pathname per line.

In this case only those pathnames appearing on the standard input are copied.

.I directory

must exist before the copy.

.PP

The standard archive formats are automatically detected on input.

The default output archive format is implementation defined,

but may be overridden by the

.B \-x

option described below.

.I pax

archives may be concatenated to combine multiple volumes on a single

tape or file.

This is accomplished by forcing any pad data to be null bytes.

.SS "Basic Options"

These options support basic archive operations.

.TP

.BI b " blocking"

Block the output at

.I blocking

bytes per record.

A

.B k

suffix multiplies

.I blocking

by 1024

and a

.B b

suffix multiplies

.I blocking

by 512.

.I blocking

is automatically determined on input and is ignored for

.BR \-rw .

The default

.I blocking

is

.B 10k

for block and character special archive files and

.B 1b

otherwise.

The minimum

.I blocking

is

.BR 1b .

.TP

.BI f " archive"

.I archive

is the pathname of the input or output archive, overriding the default

standard input for

.B \-r

or standard output for

.BR \-w .

.TP

.B m

File modification times are not retained.

.TP

.B o

Restore file ownership as specified in the archive.

The current user must have appropriate privileges.

.TP

\fBs\fP /\fIold\fP/\fInew\fP/[\fIgp\fP]

File names are mapped according

to the

.IR ed (1)

style substitution expression.

Any non-null character may be used as a delimiter

.RB ( /

shown here).

Multiple

.B \-s

expressions may be specified; the expressions are applied from left to right,

terminating with the first successful substitution.

The optional trailing

.B p

causes successful mappings to be listed on the standard error.

File names that substitute to the null string are ignored on

both input and output.

.TP

.B v

List file names as they are encountered.

Produces a verbose table of contents listing when both

.B \-r

and

.B \-w

are omitted.

.TP

.B x

Specifies the output archive

.IR format .

The input format, which must be one of the following,

is automatically determined.

The formats are:

.RS

.PD 0

.TP

.B cpio

The

.IR cpio (5)

character format.

.TP

.B tar

The

.IR tar (5)

format.

.TP

.B ustar

The proposed POSIX tar format.

.PD

.RE

.SS "Compatibility Options"

These options provide functional compatibility with the old

.IR cpio (1)

and

.IR tar (1)

commands.

.TP

.B a

For

.B \-w

append files to the end of the archive.

.TP

.B c

Complement the match sense of the

.I pattern

arguments.

.TP

.B d

Intermediate directories not explicitly listed in the archive

are not created.

.TP

.B i

Interactively

.I rename

files.

A file is skipped if a null line is entered and

.I pax

exits if

.B EOF

is encountered.

.TP

.B l

For

.BR \-rw ,

files are linked rather than copied when possible.

.TP

.B p

Preserve the access times of input files after they have been copied.

.TP

.BI t " device"

.I device

is an implementation defined identifier that names the

the input or output archive device, overriding the default

standard input for

.B \-r

or standard output for

.BR \-w .

.TP

.B u

Copy each file only if it is newer than a pre-existing file with the same name.

This option implies

.BR \-a .

.TP

.B y

Interactively prompt for the disposition of each file.

.B EOF

or an input line starting with

.B q

causes

.I pax

to exit.

Otherwise an input line starting with anything other than

.B y

causes the file to be ignored.

.SH DIAGNOSTICS

The number of files, blocks, and optionally the number of volumes and

media parts are listed on the standard error.

For

.B \-v

the input archive formats are also listed on the standard error.

.SH EXAMPLES

.TP

.B "pax \-w \-t 1m ."

Copies the contents of the current directory to tape drive 1, medium density.

.TP

.PD 0

.BI mkdir " newdir"

.TP

.BI cd " olddir"

.TP

.BI "pax \-rw ." " newdir"

.PD

Copies the

.I olddir

directory hierarchy to

.IR newdir .

.SH "SEE ALSO"

ar(1), cpio(1), find(1), sh(1), tar(1), cpio(5), tar(5)

.SH BUGS

Special privileges may be required to copy special files.

.br

Each archive format has a hard upper limit on member pathname sizes.

.br

Device, user-id and group-id numbers larger than 65535 cause additional

header records to be output.

These records are ignored by old versions of

.IR cpio (1)

and

.IR tar (1).