hey..

I just downloaded a file which is in the following format abcd.cpio.gz

Im not sure how to unpack it as im not familiar with this file format. The file is currently downloaded on a Windows machine. I looked at the contents of the .gz file using winrar and its got a file in it with an extension of *.cpio

I would like to move this file to a linux box extract it and install the application. I tried to google around for information on how i can extract the file and it looks like the cpio file needs to be extracted with special options depending on how the archive was orignally created.

Im a bit confused about this. Can anyone help.. ?

thanks

I've never actually downloaded a cpio file but, when I want to restore a backup, I use this format:
cpio -vicdm < abcd.cpio.gz

You can get more details from cpio --help

Thanks for the reply..

Two questions..

-would that restore the *.gz
-would the directory structure be restored as it was originally?

thanks

I think you have nothing to install but decompress twice: first 'gz' and then 'cpio' extension. Total Commander (a litle beautiful application which runs under Windows) has a magic built in tool which never failed to decompress even Unix archives (Alt+F9 always does the best, irrespective of extensions). Good luck!