| PAX(1) | General Commands Manual | PAX(1) | 
pax —
| pax | [ -0cdjnOVvz] [-Elimit] [-farchive] [-Ndbdir] [-sreplstr] ...
      [-Uuser]
      ... [-Ggroup] ...
      [-T[from_date][,to_date]]
      ... [pattern ...] | 
| pax | -r[-AcDdijknOuVvYZz]
      [-Elimit]
      [-farchive]
      [-Ndbdir]
      [-ooptions]
      ... [-pstring] ...
      [-sreplstr]
      ... [-Uuser] ...
      [-Ggroup]
      ... [-T[from_date][,to_date]]
      ... [pattern ...] | 
| pax | -w[-AdHijLMOPtuVvXz]
      [-bblocksize]
      [[-a] [-farchive]] [-xformat] [-Bbytes] [-Ndbdir] [-ooptions] ...
      [-sreplstr]
      ... [-Uuser] ...
      [-Ggroup]
      ... [-T[from_date][,to_date][/[c][m]]]
      ... [file ...] | 
| pax | -r-w[-ADdHijkLlMnOPtuVvXYZz]
      [-Ndbdir]
      [-pstring]
      ... [-sreplstr] ...
      [-Uuser]
      ... [-Ggroup] ...
      [-T[from_date][,to_date][/[c][m]]]
      ... [file ...]
      directory | 
pax will read, write, and list the members of an archive
  file, and will copy directory hierarchies. If the archive file is of the form:
  [[user@]host:]file then the archive will be processed
  using rmt(8).
pax operation is independent of the
    specific archive format, and supports a wide variety of different archive
    formats. A list of supported archive formats can be found under the
    description of the -x option.
The presence of the -r and the
    -w options specifies which of the following
    functional modes pax will operate under:
    list, read, write, and
    copy.
pax will write to
      standard output a table of contents of the members
      of the archive file read from standard input,
      whose pathnames match the specified patterns. The
      table of contents contains one filename per line and is written using
      single line buffering.-rpax extracts the members
      of the archive file read from the standard input,
      with pathnames matching the specified patterns. The
      archive format and blocking is automatically determined on input. When an
      extracted file is a directory, the entire file hierarchy rooted at that
      directory is extracted. All extracted files are created relative to the
      current file hierarchy. The setting of ownership, access and modification
      times, and file mode of the extracted files are discussed in more detail
      under the -p option.-wpax writes an archive
      containing the file operands to
      standard output using the specified archive
      format. When no file operands are specified, a list
      of files to copy with one per line is read from standard
      input. When a file operand is also a
      directory, the entire file hierarchy rooted at that directory will be
      included.-r
    -wpax copies the
      file operands to the destination
      directory. When no file
      operands are specified, a list of files to copy with one per line is read
      from the standard input. When a
      file operand is also a directory the entire file
      hierarchy rooted at that directory will be included. The effect of the
      copy is as if the copied files were written to an
      archive file and then subsequently extracted, except that there may be
      hard links between the original and the copied files (see the
      -l option below).
    Warning: The destination directory must not be one of the file operands or a member of a file hierarchy rooted at one of the file operands. The result of a copy under these conditions is unpredictable.
While processing a damaged archive during a read
    or list operation, pax will
    attempt to recover from media defects and will search through the archive to
    locate and process the largest number of archive members possible (see the
    -E option for more details on error handling).
pax will exit with a non-zero exit status.
The pattern operand is used to select one or
    more pathnames of archive members. Archive members are selected using the
    pattern matching notation described by
    fnmatch(3). When the
    pattern operand is not supplied, all members of the
    archive will be selected. When a pattern matches a
    directory, the entire file hierarchy rooted at that directory will be
    selected. When a pattern operand does not select at
    least one archive member, pax will write these
    pattern operands in a diagnostic message to
    standard error and then exit with a non-zero exit
    status.
The file operand specifies the pathname of a
    file to be copied or archived. When a file operand
    does not select at least one archive member, pax
    will write these file operand pathnames in a
    diagnostic message to standard error and then exit
    with a non-zero exit status.
-rstandard input and
      extract the specified files. If any intermediate
      directories are needed in order to extract an archive member, these
      directories will be created as if
      mkdir(2) was called with the
      bitwise inclusive OR of
      S_IRWXU, S_IRWXG, and
      S_IRWXO as the mode argument. When the selected
      archive format supports the specification of linked files and these files
      cannot be linked while the archive is being extracted,
      pax will write a diagnostic message to
      standard error and exit with a non-zero exit
      status at the completion of operation.-wstandard output in the
      specified archive format. When no file operands are
      specified, standard input is read for a list of
      pathnames with one per line without any leading or trailing
      ⟨blanks⟩.-a-x option, the format currently being used in the
      archive will be selected. Any attempt to append to an archive in a format
      different from the format already used in the archive will cause
      pax to exit immediately with a non-zero exit
      status. The blocking size used in the archive volume where writing starts
      will continue to be used for the remainder of that archive volume.
    Warning: Many storage devices are not able to support the operations necessary to perform an append operation. Any attempt to append to an archive stored on such a device may damage the archive or have other unpredictable results. Tape drives in particular are more likely to not support an append operation. An archive stored in a regular file system file or on a disk device will usually support an append operation.
-b
    blocksizek or b to specify
      multiplication by 1024 (1K) or 512, respectively. A pair of
      blocksizes can be separated by
      x to indicate a product. A specific archive device
      may impose additional restrictions on the size of blocking it will
      support. When blocking is not specified, the default
      blocksize is dependent on the specific archive
      format being used (see the -x option).-c-d-f
    archivestandard
      input (for list and read) or
      standard output (for write). A
      single archive may span multiple files and different archive devices. When
      required, pax will prompt for the pathname of the
      file or device of the next volume in the archive.-ipax will
      prompt to /dev/tty giving the name of the file,
      its file mode and its modification time. pax will
      then read a line from /dev/tty. If this line is
      blank, the file or archive member is skipped. If this line consists of a
      single period, the file or archive member is processed with no
      modification to its name. Otherwise, its name is replaced with the
      contents of the line. pax will immediately exit
      with a non-zero exit status if ⟨EOF⟩
      is encountered when reading a response or if
      /dev/tty cannot be opened for reading and
    writing.-j-k-l-r -w), hard links are
      made between the source and destination file hierarchies whenever
      possible.-n-d is also specified).-o
    options-x. In general, options take
      the form: name=value-p
    stringa,
      e, m,
      o, and p. Multiple
      characteristics can be concatenated within the same string and multiple
      -p options can be specified. The meanings of the
      specification characters are as follows:
    aee flag is the sum
          of the o and p
        flags.mopIn the preceding list, ‘preserve’ indicates that
        an attribute stored in the archive is given to the extracted file,
        subject to the permissions of the invoking process. Otherwise the
        attribute of the extracted file is determined as part of the normal file
        creation action. If neither the e nor the
        o specification character is specified, or the
        user ID and group ID are not preserved for any reason,
        pax will not set the
        S_ISUID (setuid) and
        S_ISGID (setgid) bits of the
        file mode. If the preservation of any of these items fails for any
        reason, pax will write a diagnostic message to
        standard error. Failure to preserve these items
        will affect the final exit status, but will not cause the extracted file
        to be deleted. If the file characteristic letters in any of the string
        option-arguments are duplicated or conflict with each other, the one(s)
        given last will take precedence. For example, if
-p
      eme-s
    replstr/old/new/[gps]old is a basic regular expression and
      new can contain an ampersand (&), \n (where n
      is a digit) back-references, or subexpression matching. The
      old string may also contain
      ⟨newline⟩ characters. Any non-null
      character except a backslash (\) can be used as a delimiter (/ is shown
      here). Multiple -s expressions can be specified.
      The expressions are applied in the order they are specified on the command
      line, terminating with the first successful substitution. The optional
      trailing g continues to apply the substitution
      expression to the pathname substring which starts with the first character
      following the end of the last successful substitution. The first
      unsuccessful substitution stops the operation of the
      g option. The optional trailing
      p will cause the final result of a successful
      substitution to be written to standard error in
      the following format:
    ⟨original pathname⟩
      >> ⟨new pathname⟩s prevents the substitutions from being performed
      on symbolic link destinations.-tpax to be the same as they were before being read
      or accessed by pax, if the user has the
      appropriate permissions required by
      utime(3).-u-v-l option. For pathnames representing a hard link
      to a previous member of the archive, the output has the format:
    ⟨ls -l listing⟩ ==
      ⟨link name⟩-l option.
    Otherwise for all the other operational modes
        (read, write, and
        copy), pathnames are written and flushed to
        standard error without a trailing
        ⟨newline⟩ as soon as processing
        begins on that file or archive member. The trailing
        ⟨newline⟩, is not buffered, and is
        written only after the file has been read or written.
A final summary of archive operations is printed after they have been completed.
-x
    formatpax currently
      supports the following formats:
    pax and is repaired.pax
          and is repaired.pax and is repaired.pax
          and is repaired.-o option can be used when writing
          an archive to omit the storage of directories. This option takes the
          form:
        -o
          write_opt=nodirpax will detect and report any file
        that it is unable to store or extract as the result of any specific
        archive format restrictions. The individual archive formats may impose
        additional restrictions on use. Typical archive format restrictions
        include (but are not limited to): file pathname length, file size, link
        pathname length and the type of the file.
--gnu--timestamp
    timestamp--xz-z-A-B
    bytesm, k, or
      b to specify multiplication by 1048576 (1M), 1024
      (1K) or 512, respectively. A pair of bytes limits
      can be separated by x to indicate a product.
    Warning: Only use this option when writing an archive to a device which supports an end of file read condition based on last (or largest) write offset (such as a regular file or a tape drive). The use of this option with a floppy or hard disk is not recommended.
-D-u option, except
      that the file inode change time is checked instead of the file
      modification time. The file inode change time can be used to select files
      whose inode information (e.g. uid, gid, etc.) is newer than a copy of the
      file in the destination directory.-E
    limitpax will attempt to
      recover from an archive read error and will continue processing starting
      with the next file stored in the archive. A limit of
      0 will cause pax to stop operation after the first
      read error is detected on an archive volume. A limit
      of NONE will cause pax to
      attempt to recover from read errors forever. The default
      limit is a small positive number of retries.
    Warning: Using this option with
        NONE should be used with extreme caution as
        pax may get stuck in an infinite loop on a very
        badly flawed archive.
-G
    group#, a numeric gid. A '\' can be
      used to escape the #. Multiple
      -G options may be supplied and checking stops with
      the first match.-H-L-Mstandard input as an
      mtree(8)
      ‘specfile’ specification, and write or copy only those items
      in the specfile.
    If the file exists in the underlying file system, its permissions and modification time will be used unless specifically overridden by the specfile. An error will be raised if the type of entry in the specfile conflicts with that of an existing file. A directory entry that is marked ‘optional’ will not be copied (even though its contents will be).
Otherwise, the entry will be ‘faked-up’, and it is necessary to specify at least the following parameters in the specfile: type, mode, gname or gid, and uname or uid, device (in the case of block or character devices), and link (in the case of symbolic links). If time isn't provided, the current time will be used. A ‘faked-up’ entry that is marked ‘optional’ will not be copied.
-N
    dbdir-G and
      -U options, use the user database text file
      master.passwd and group database text file
      group from dbdir, rather
      than using the results from the system's
      getpwnam(3) and
      getgrnam(3) (and related)
      library calls.-Opax will not prompt for a new volume. This option
      can be useful for automated tasks where error recovery cannot be performed
      by a human.-P-T
    [from_date][,to_date][/[c][m]]When pax is in the
        write or copy mode, the optional
        trailing field [c][m] can be used to determine
        which file time (inode change, file modification or both) are used in
        the comparison. If neither is specified, the default is to use file
        modification time only. The m specifies the
        comparison of file modification time (the time when the file was last
        written). The c specifies the comparison of inode
        change time (the time when the file inode was last changed; e.g. a
        change of owner, group, mode, etc). When c and
        m are both specified, then the modification and
        inode change times are both compared. The inode change time comparison
        is useful in selecting files whose attributes were recently changed or
        selecting files which were recently created and had their modification
        time reset to an older time (as what happens when a file is extracted
        from an archive and the modification time is preserved). Time
        comparisons using both file times is useful when
        pax is used to create a time based incremental
        archive (only files that were changed during a specified time range will
        be archived).
A time range is made up of seven different fields and each field must contain two digits. The format is:
[[[[[cc]yy]mm]dd]hh]mm[.ss]cc is the first two digits of the year (the
      century), yy is the last two digits of the year,
      the first mm is the month (from 01 to 12),
      dd is the day of the month (from 01 to 31),
      hh is the hour of the day (from 00 to 23), the
      second mm is the minute (from 00 to 59), and
      ss is the seconds (from 00 to 61). Only the minute
      field mm is required; the others will default to
      the current system values. The ss field may be
      added independently of the other fields. If the century is not specified,
      it defaults to 1900 for years between 69 and 99, or 2000 for years between
      0 and 68. Time ranges are relative to the current time, so
    -T
      1234/cm-T time range can be
      supplied and checking stops with the first match.-U
    user#, a numeric uid. A '\' can be
      used to escape the #. Multiple
      -U options may be supplied and checking stops with
      the first match.-V-Xst_dev field as described in
      stat(2) for more information
      about device ID's.-Y-D option, except
      that the inode change time is checked using the pathname created after all
      the file name modifications have completed.-Z-u option, except
      that the modification time is checked using the pathname created after all
      the file name modifications have completed.-0--force-local--insecurepax ignores filenames that contain
      “..” as a path component. With this option, files that
      contain “..” can be processed.--use-compress-programThe options that operate on the names of files or archive members
    (-c, -i,
    -n, -s,
    -u, -v,
    -D, -G,
    -T, -U,
    -Y, and -Z) interact as
    follows.
When extracting files during a read operation,
    archive members are ‘selected’, based only on the user
    specified pattern operands as modified by the -c,
    -n, -u,
    -D, -G,
    -T, -U options. Then any
    -s and -i options will
    modify in that order, the names of these selected files. Then the
    -Y and -Z options will be
    applied based on the final pathname. Finally the -v
    option will write the names resulting from these modifications.
When archiving files during a write operation,
    or copying files during a copy operation, archive members
    are ‘selected’, based only on the user specified pathnames as
    modified by the -n, -u,
    -D, -G,
    -T, and -U options (the
    -D option only applies during a copy operation).
    Then any -s and -i options
    will modify in that order, the names of these selected files. Then during a
    copy operation the -Y and the
    -Z options will be applied based on the final
    pathname. Finally the -v option will write the names
    resulting from these modifications.
When one or both of the -u or
    -D options are specified along with the
    -n option, a file is not considered selected unless
    it is newer than the file to which it is compared.
pax will exit with one of the following values:
Whenever pax cannot create a file or a
    link when reading an archive or cannot find a file when writing an archive,
    or cannot preserve the user ID, group ID, or file mode when the
    -p option is specified, a diagnostic message is
    written to standard error and a non-zero exit status
    will be returned, but processing will continue. In the case where pax cannot
    create a link to a file, pax will not create a
    second copy of the file.
If the extraction of a file from an archive is prematurely
    terminated by a signal or error, pax may have only
    partially extracted a file the user wanted. Additionally, the file modes of
    extracted files and directories may have incorrect file bits, and the
    modification and access times may be wrong.
If the creation of an archive is prematurely terminated by a
    signal or error, pax may have only partially created
    the archive which may violate the specific archive format specification.
If while doing a copy,
    pax detects a file is about to overwrite itself, the
    file is not copied, a diagnostic message is written to
    standard error and when pax
    completes it will exit with a non-zero exit status.
pax -w -f /dev/rst0 .The command:
pax -v -f filenameThe following commands:
mkdir newdircd olddirpax -rw -pp
  . ../newdirWhen running as root, one may also wish to preserve file ownership when copying directory trees. This can be done with the following commands:
cd olddirpax -rw -pe
  . ../newdirThe command:
pax -r -s ',^//*usr//*,,' -f
  a.paxThe command:
pax -rw -i
  . dest_dirThe command:
pax -r -pe -U root -G bin -f
  a.paxThe command:
pax -r -w -v -Y -Z home
  /backuppax utility is a superset of the
  IEEE Std 1003.2 (“POSIX.2”) standard.
  The options -B, -D,
  -E, -G,
  -H, -L,
  -M, -O,
  -P, -T,
  -U, -Y,
  -Z, -z, the archive formats
  bcpio, sv4cpio,
  sv4crc, tar, and the flawed
  archive handling during list and
  read operations are extensions to the POSIX standard.
pax utility appeared in
  4.4BSD.
-M.
| March 19, 2019 | NetBSD 10.0 |