I tried to use Ark to extract a cpio archive but it told me that cpio format is not supported. I trid also with mc with no luck. I got the latest of cpio installed but do not know how to use it. I tried with man pages but not clear. Can some one explain how to do it? or tell me if there is a gui for cpio?

It's hard to say for sure what will work w/o knowing the parameters used when the archive was created but this is worth a try:

cpio -id < archiveName

The -i says to extract and the -d says to create directories ahead of time if necessary. You might also want to try "-m" to preserve modification times on the restored files.

- Dave

Thanks dave. I am trying to edit a file called message that a distro uses to display its menu during bootup. I am able to open the file with:
cpio -im < message
I made the changes I need ant tried:
cpio -o > message2
but did work so I did:
cpio -o > message2
and got:
knoppix@box:~/work$ cpio -o > message
bash: message: Permission denied
knoppix@box:~/work$ su
Password:
root@box:/home/knoppix/work# cpio -o > message

It just stops for ages and do nothing.

Any idea?

"cpio -o" takes a list of file names from standard input and archives those files to standard output.

In your case, you should do something like:

echo nameOfEditedFile | cpio -o > message2


If more than one file came from the original archive then you probably should list all of them:

echo nameOfEditedFile1 nameOfFile2 nameOfFile3 | cpio -o > message2

I'm a little surprised to see cpio used in this way. My typical use has been to combine cpio with find to archive all files in a directory or to copy files from one directory to another:

find . -depth -print | cpio -o > archive

or

find . -depth -print | cpio -pd /mnt/destination


Good Luck

- Dave

Thanks alot. It did work as you explained. I used:

find . -depth -print | cpio -o > message

as you suggested. I appreciate your help and very clear answers.