On Tue, 2009-11-24 at 13:30 -0700, Aaron Toponce wrote: > Ah yes, forgot about that. Thanks for reminding me there. So, RPM and > initrd.img. Any other common uses of cpio?
Oracle at least used to ship it's updates as cpio's. While the tar command may be easy to use, the tar file format is a real mess. Traditional tar was pretty much useless for storing anything other than normal files and directories with relatively short names. Extension have been added for storing special files (devices, symlinks, etc), long filename, FACLs, etc. But the historical fact is that while the cpio command is harder to use, the cpio file format is cleaner and more powerful. > > I don't use cpio all that often, but it pains me to see it maligned. :) > > It pains me to use cpio. To each their own. It pains most people, but when a clean, reliable, compatible file format is more important that an easy to use command, cpio has advantages. Perhaps you pain would be lessened by a little secret: pax. -- "XML is like violence: if it doesn't solve your problem, you aren't using enough of it." - Chris Maden -------------------- BYU Unix Users Group http://uug.byu.edu/ The opinions expressed in this message are the responsibility of their author. They are not endorsed by BYU, the BYU CS Department or BYU-UUG. ___________________________________________________________________ List Info (unsubscribe here): http://uug.byu.edu/mailman/listinfo/uug-list
