Here’s a concise guide on archiving files with cpio in Linux, presented in notes format with a command summary.

Archiving Files with cpio in Linux

• cpio stands for Copy In and Out.
• It is used to archive files, copy directories, or extract archives.
• Reads file names from standard input, not from command-line arguments like tar.

Common Use Cases

1. Create an archive
2. Extract files from an archive
3. List archive contents

File Selection: find + cpio

cpio doesn’t take file names directly — it expects input via pipe or redirect. Usually used with find.

Modes of Operation

Creating an Archive (Copy-out mode)

find . -type f | cpio -ov > archive.cpio

• -o : copy-out (create archive)
• -v : verbose
• > : write archive to file

Extracting an Archive (Copy-in mode)

cpio -idv < archive.cpio

• -i : copy-in (extract)
• -d : create directories if needed
• -v : verbose
• < : read archive from file

Listing Archive Contents

cpio -it < archive.cpio

• -t : list contents (table of contents)

Copy Files from One Directory to Another (Copy-pass mode)

find . -type f | cpio -pvd /destination/path

• -p : copy-pass
• -v : verbose
• -d : create directories

Compression with gzip

find . -type f | cpio -ov | gzip > archive.cpio.gz

To extract:

gunzip < archive.cpio.gz | cpio -idv

Summary of Common cpio Flags