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pax — Archiving and copying utility. More information: <https://manned.org/pax.1p>.

Submitted by: @import:tldr-pages·Mar 2, 2026·

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How to use the pax command: Archiving and copying utility. More information: <https://manned.org/pax.1p>.

pax — Archiving and copying utility. More information: <https://manned.org/pax.1p>.

List the contents of an archive:

pax -f {{archive.tar}}

List the contents of a gzip archive:

pax -zf {{archive.tar.gz}}

Create an archive from files:

pax -wf {{target.tar}} {{path/to/file1 path/to/file2 ...}}

Create an archive from files, using output redirection:

pax -w {{path/to/file1 path/to/file2 ...}} > {{target.tar}}

Extract an archive into the current directory:

pax -rf {{source.tar}}

Copy to a directory, while keeping the original metadata; target/ must exist:

pax -rw {{path/to/file1}} {{path/to/directory1 path/to/directory2 ...}} {{target/}}

List the contents of an archive

pax -f {{archive.tar}}

List the contents of a `gzip` archive

pax -zf {{archive.tar.gz}}

Create an archive from files

pax -wf {{target.tar}} {{path/to/file1 path/to/file2 ...}}

Create an archive from files, using output redirection

pax -w {{path/to/file1 path/to/file2 ...}} > {{target.tar}}

Extract an archive into the current directory

pax -rf {{source.tar}}

tldr-pages: common/pax

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