Pax
Starts the Portable Archive Interchange (Pax) utility.
pax [-cimopuvy] [-f archive] [-s replstr] [-t device] [pattern...]
pax -r [-cimnopuvy] [-f archive] [-s replstr] [-t device] [pattern...]
pax -w [-adimuvy] [-b blocking] [-f archive] [-s replstr] [-t device] [-x format] [pathname...]
pax -rw [-ilmopuvy] [-s replstr] [pathname...] directory
Pax is a POSIX program and pathnames used as arguments must be specified in POSIX
format. Use "//C/USERS/DEFAULT" instead of "C:\USERS\DEFAULT."
Combinations of the -r and -w command line arguments specify whether pax will read, write or list the contents of the specified archive, or move the
specified files to another directory.
Parameters
-r
Reads an archive file from the standard input. Only files with names that
match any of the pattern operands are selected for extraction. 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 invoking process, and the permissions and modification times will be
the sames as those in the archive. The supported archive formats are
automatically detected on input. The default output format is ustar, but may be
overridden by the -x format option described below.
-w
Writes the files and directories specified by the pathname operands to the standard output together with the pathname and status
information prescribed by the archive format used. A directory pathname operand refers to the files and (recursively) subdirectories of that
directory. If no pathname operands 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.
-rw
Reads the files and directories named in the pathname operands and copies them to the destination directory. A directory pathname operand refers to the files and (recursively) subdirectories of that
directory. If no pathname operands are given, 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. The directory named by the directory operand must exist and have the proper permissions before the copy can occur.
-a
The files specified by pathname are appended to the specified archive.
-b blocking
Block the output at blocking bytes per write to the archive file. A k suffix
multiplies blocking by 1024, a b suffix multiplies blocking by 512 and a m
suffix multiplies blocking by 1048576 (1 mega-byte). If not specified, blocking is
automatically determined on input and is ignored for -rw.
-c
Complement the match sense of the pattern operands.
-d
Intermediate directories not explicitly listed in the archive are not created.
This option is ignored unless the -r option is specified.
-f archive
The archive option specifies the pathname of the input or output archive,
overriding the default of standard input for -r or standard output for -w.
-i
Interactively rename files. Substitutions specified by -s options (described below) are performed before requesting the new file name
from the user. A file is skipped if an empty line is entered and pax exits with
an exit status of 0 if EOF is encountered.
-l
Files are linked rather than copied when possible.
-m
File modification times are not retained.
-n
When -r is specified, but -w is not, the pattern arguments are treated as ordinary file names. Only the first occurrence of
each of these files in the input archive is read. Pax exits with a zero exit status after all files in the list have been read. If
one or more files in the list is not found, pax writes a diagnostic to standard error for each of the files and exits with a
non-zero exit status. The file names are compared before any of the -i, -s, or -y options are applied.
-o
Restore file ownership as specified in the archive. The invoking process must
have appropriate privileges to accomplish this.
-p
Preserve the access time of the input files after they have been copied.
-s replstr
File names are modified according to the substitution expression using the
syntax of ed(1) as shown:
-s /old/new/[gp]
Any non null character may be used as a delimiter (a / is used here as an
example). Multiple -s expressions may be specified; the expressions are applied in the order
specified terminating with the first successful substitution. The optional trailing
p causes successful mappings to be listed on standard error. The optional
trailing g causes the old expression to be replaced each time it occurs in the
source string. Files that substitute to an empty string are ignored both on input
and output.
-t device
The device option argument is an implementation defined identifier that names
the input or output archive device, overriding the default of standard input
for -r and standard output for -w.
-u
Copy each file only if it is newer than a pre-existing file with the same
name. This implies -a.
-v
List file names as they are encountered. Produces a verbose table of contents
listing on the standard output when both -r and -w are omitted, otherwise the file names are printed to standard error as they
are encountered in the archive.
-x format
Specifies the output archive format. The input format, which must be one of
the following, is automatically determined when the -r option is used. The supported formats are:
Pax--Notes
