pax

The pax utility shall read, write, and write lists of the members of archive files and copy directory hierarchies. A variety of archive formats shall be supported; see the -x format option. In list mode (when neither -r nor -w are specified), pax shall write the names of the members of the archive file read from the standard input, with pathnames matching the specified patterns, to standard output. If a named file is of type directory, the file hierarchy rooted at that file shall be listed as well. In read mode (when -r is specified, but -w is not), pax shall extract the members of the archive file read from the standard input, with pathnames matching the specified patterns. If an extracted file is of type directory, the file hierarchy rooted at that file shall be extracted as well. The extracted files shall be created performing pathname resolution with the directory in which pax was invoked as the current working directory. The ownership, access, and modification times, and file mode of the restored files are discussed under the -p option. In copy mode (when both -r and -w are specified), pax shall copy the file operands to the destination directory. In read or copy modes, if intermediate directories are necessary to extract an archive member, pax shall perform actions equivalent to the mkdir () function defined in the System Interfaces volume of POSIX.1-2017, called with the following arguments: If any specified pattern or file operands are not matched by at least one file or archive member, pax shall write a diagnostic message to standard error for each one that did not match and exit with a non-zero exit status. The archive formats described in the EXTENDED DESCRIPTION section shall be automatically detected on input. The default output archive format shall be implementation-defined. A single archive can span multiple files. The pax utility shall determine, in an implementation-defined manner, what file to read or write as the next file. If the selected archive format supports the specification of linked files, it shall be an error if these files cannot be linked when the archive is extracted. For archive formats that do not store file contents with each name that causes a hard link, if the file that contains the data is not extracted during this pax session, either the data shall be restored from the original file, or a diagnostic message shall be displayed with the name of a file that can be used to extract the data. In traversing directories, pax shall detect infinite loops; that is, entering a previously visited directory that is an ancestor of the last file visited. When it detects an infinite loop, pax shall write a diagnostic message to standard error and shall terminate. Append files to the end of the archive. It is implementation-defined which devices on the system support appending. Additional file formats unspecified by this volume of POSIX.1-2017 may impose restrictions on appending. Block the output at a positive decimal integer number of bytes per write to the archive file. Devices and archive formats may impose restrictions on blocking. Blocking shall be automatically determined on input. Conforming applications shall not specify a blocksize value larger than 32256. Default blocking when creating archives depends on the archive format. (See the -x option below.) Match all file or archive members except those specified by the pattern or file operands. Cause files of type directory being copied or archived or archive members of type directory being extracted or listed to match only the file or archive member itself and not the file hierarchy rooted at the file. Specify the pathname of the input or output archive, overriding the default standard input (in list or read modes) or standard output ( write mode). If a symbolic link referencing a file of type directory is specified on the command line, pax shall archive the file hierarchy rooted in the file referenced by the link, using the name of th