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The pax Command

pax which stands for portable archive interchange. The pax command provides better portability than the tar or cpio commands for POSIX-compliant systems. Use the pax command to copy files, special files, or file systems that require multiple tape volumes or when you want to copy files to and from POSIX-compliant systems. Disadvantages of the pax command are that it is not aware of file system boundaries and the full path name length cannot exceed 255 characters.

Copying All Files in a Directory to a Tape (pax)

Follow these steps to use the pax command to copy all the files in the current directory to a tape:

1.  Change to the directory that contains the files you want to copy.

2.  Insert a write-enabled tape into the tape drive.

3.  Type pax -w -f < /dev/rmt/ and press Return. The -w option writes the current directory contents to tape. The -f option identifies the tape drive. The pax command does not list the files as they are copied.

4.  Type pax -l -f < /dev/rmt/ and press Return. The -l option lists the files on the tape to verify that the files are copied.

5.  Remove the tape from the drive and write the names of the files on the tape label.

In this example, all files are copied from the tape in drive 0:

castle% pax -w -f /dev/rmt/0 .
castle% pax -l -f /dev/rmt/0
.
./addusr-1.rs
./addusr-2.rs
./at-addmn.rs
./at-base.rs
./at-menu.rs
castle%

See the pax(1) manual page for more information.

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NOTE:  When you use the pax command to copy files to a single-volume tape, you can also list and retrieve files from that tape by using the tar command.

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Retrieving All Files on a Tape (pax)

Follow these steps to use the pax command to copy all the files on a tape into the current directory:

1.  Change to the directory where you want to copy the files.

2.  Insert a write-enabled tape into the tape drive.

3.  Type pax -r -f </dev/rmt/n . and press Return. The -r option reads the contents of the tape to the current directory. The -f option identifies the tape drive. The pax command does not list the files as they are copied.

4.  Type ls -l and press Return. The ls -l command lists the files in the current directory and shows their permissions to verify that the files are copied.

5.  Remove the tape from the drive and write the names of the files on the tape label.

In this example, all files are copied from the tape in drive 0:

% pax -r -f /dev/rmt/0 .
pax: . :not owner
castle% ls -l
-rw-rw-rw-   1 winsor   staff     245660 Sep 12 11:52 addusr-1.rs
-rw-rw-rw-   1 winsor   staff     245660 Sep 12 10:31 addusr-2.rs
-rw-rw-rw-   1 winsor   staff     181315 Sep 12 10:29 at-addmn.rs
-rw-rw-rw-   1 winsor   staff     181309 Sep 12 10:27 at-base.rs
-rw-rw-rw-   1 winsor   staff     181315 Sep 12 10:28 at-menu.rs
castle%