cpio retrieve a file

[Hanry Zhou]

How to retrieve a particular file(only one) from the tape by using cpio?

Thanks!

[S.K. Chan]

It depends on what cpio options do you use when you backed up the file to tape at the first place. Typically ..(assuming tape device is /dev/rmt/2m) you can try this and see if it works ..
# cpio -icvdxumB < /dev/rmt/2m 'filename'

[Helen French]

Depend on the options used while your tape was created. For eg:

# cpio -icdumv ./tmp/test.txt < /dev/rmt/0m

This command will assume the backup was created using relative path and you should use the exact path name as it is in the tape.

[Helen French]

Also, it is possible to use wild card characters if you are not sure about the real file name or path name:

# cpio -icdumv "./tmp/shiju/*" < /dev/rmt/0m

This will restore all files from /tmp/shiju to the current directory.

[Hanry Zhou]

I am not sure what path I have used, relative or full path?

[Richard Hood]

since you are not sure what was written to the tape: You will need to first identify the file you need to restore


cpio -itB >/tmp/tape.out (creates output of tape contents)

grep [filename] /tmp/tape.out

cpio -iBdmuvc (output from step 2)

[Frank Slootweg]

Note that you also need the right combination of the "c" and "B" options ("c", "B", "cB" or neither/nothing), so it helps if you know the combination which was used when writing the tape. If you don't know, then say so and we will explain how to find out.

[Ravi_8]

Hi,

depend on the options used while your tape was created (absolute/relative path)

assuming absolute path is used

# cpio -icdv < /dev/rmt/0m/

(assuming /dec/rmt/0m is the tape drive)

[Keely Jackson]

Hi

If you don't know how the cpio archive was created you can always try and extract the file using pax, eg pax -r -f archive filename

See man pax for the all parameters you need as I can't remember the exact syntax.

Cheers
Keely

[Thomas Greig]

Is it possible to extract the whole tape
with cpio (even if the tape have been created in different groups)?

say the tape consists of several groups of data, created with cpio.
I'm looking for a quick method of extracting all the data-groups on the tape.

regards
Thomas Greig