Operation modifiers valid in any mode

--block-size=BLOCK-SIZE

Set the I/O block size to BLOCK-SIZE * 512 bytes.

-B

Set the I/O block size to 5120 bytes.

-c

Use the old portable (ASCII) archive format. This is the same as -H odc.

-C, --io-size=NUMBER

Set the I/O block size to the given NUMBER of bytes.

-D, --directory=DIR

Change to directory DIR.

--force-local

Archive file is local, even if its name contains colons.

-H, --format=FORMAT

Use given archive FORMAT. Valid formats are (the number in parentheses gives maximum size for individual archive member):

-R, --owner=[USER][:.][GROUP]

In copy-in and copy-pass mode, set the ownership of all files created to the specified USER and/or GROUP. In copy-out mode, store the supplied owner information in the archive.

USER and GROUP are first looked up in the system user and group databases. If not found, cpio checks if they consist of decimal digits only and, if so, treats them as numeric UID and GID, correspondingly.

To avoid the lookup and ensure that arguments are treated as numeric values, prefix them with a plus sign, e.g.: -R +0:+0.

--quiet

Do not print the number of blocks copied at the end of the run.

--rsh-command=COMMAND

Use remote COMMAND instead of rsh.

-v, --verbose

Verbosely list the files processed.

-V, --dot

Print a "." for each file processed.

-W, --warning=FLAG

Controlsи warning display. The FLAG is one of none, to disable all warnings, all to enable them, truncate, to enable warnings about field truncation, and no-truncate, to disable them.

Multiple -W options accumulate.

Operation modifiers valid in copy-in and copy-out modes

-F, --file=[[USER@]HOST:]ARCHIVE-FILE

Use this ARCHIVE-FILE instead of standard input (in copy-in mode) or standard output (in copy-out mode). Optional USER and HOST specify the user and host names in case of a remote archive.

-M, --message=STRING

Print STRING when the end of a volume of the backup media is reached.

Operation modifiers valid only in copy-in mode

-b, --swap

Swap both halfwords of words and bytes of halfwords in the data. Equivalent to -sS.

-f, --nonmatching

Only copy files that do not match any of the given patterns.

-n, --numeric-uid-gid

In the verbose table of contents listing, show numeric UID and GID.

-r, --rename

Interactively rename files.

-s, --swap-bytes

Swap the bytes of each halfword in the files.

-S, --swap-halfwords

Swap the halfwords of each word (4 bytes) in the files.

--to-stdout

Extract files to standard output.

-E, --pattern-file=FILE

Read additional patterns specifying filenames to extract or list from FILE.

--only-verify-crc

When reading a CRC format archive, only verify the CRC's of each file in the archive, without actually extracting the files.

Operation modifiers valid only in copy-out mode

-A, --append

Append to an existing archive.

--device-independent, --reproducible

Create reproducible archives. This is equivalent to --ignore-devno --renumber-inodes.

--ignore-devno

Store 0 in the device number field of each archive member, instead of the actual device number.

-O [[USER@]HOST:]ARCHIVE-NAME

Use ARCHIVE-NAME instead of standard output. Optional USER and HOST specify the user and host names in case of a remote archive.

The output archive name can be specified wither using this option, or using -F (--file), but not both.

--renumber-inodes

Renumber inodes when storing them in the archive.

Operation modifiers valid only in copy-pass mode

-l, --link

Link files instead of copying them, when possible.

Operation modifiers valid in copy-in and copy-out modes

--absolute-filenames

Do not strip file system prefix components from the file names. This is the default.

--no-absolute-filenames

Create all files relative to the current directory.

Operation modifiers valid in copy-out and copy-pass modes

-0, --null

Filenames in the list are delimited by null characters instead of newlines.

-a, --reset-access-time

Reset the access times of files after reading them.

-I [[USER@]HOST:]ARCHIVE-NAME

Use ARCHIVE-NAME instead of standard input. Optional USER and HOST specify the user and host names in case of a remote archive.

The input archive name can be specified wither using this option, or using -F (--file), but not both.

-L, --dereference

Dereference symbolic links (copy the files that they point to instead of copying the links).

Operation modifiers valid in copy-in and copy-pass modes

-d, --make-directories

Create leading directories where needed.

-m, --preserve-modification-time

Retain previous file modification times when creating files.

--no-preserve-owner

Do not change the ownership of the files.

--sparse

Write files with large blocks of zeros as sparse files.

-u, --unconditional

Replace all files unconditionally.