This is GNU cpio.  This package also includes rmt, the remote tape
server (which must reside in /etc), and mt, a tape drive control
program; these two programs will only be compiled if your system
supports remote command execution, and tape drive control operations,
respectively.

To compile on Unix-like systems:

1.  Type `./configure'.  This shell script attempts to guess correct
values for various system-dependent variables used during compilation,
and creates the file `Makefile'.  This takes a minute or two.

If your system requires unusual options for compilation or linking
that `configure' doesn't know about, you can give `configure' initial
values for variables by setting them in the environment; in
Bourne-compatible shells, you can do that on the command line like
this:
$ CC='gcc -traditional' LIBS=-lposix ./configure

2.  If you want to change the directories where the programs and their
documentation will be installed, or the optimization options, edit
`Makefile' and change those values.  If you have an unusual system
that needs special compilation options that `configure' doesn't know
about, and you didn't pass them in the environment when running
`configure', you should add them to `Makefile' now.  Alternately,
teach `configure' how to figure out that it is being run on a system
where they are needed, and mail the diffs to the address listed at the
end of this file so we can include them in the next release.

3.  Type `make'.

4.  If the programs compile successfully, type `make install' to
install them and their documentation.

5.  After you have installed the programs and documentation, you can
remove the binaries from the source directory by typing `make
clean'.  Type `make distclean' if you also want to remove `Makefile',
for instance if you are going to recompile cpio next on another type
of machine.

For non-Unix systems:

makefile.pc is a makefile for Turbo C 2.0 on MS-DOS.
  Type `make -fmakefile.pc' to use it.

cpio.cs is a compiler shell script for the OS/2 version with MSC 6.0.
  The compiler shell `cs' is a shareware program written by
  Kai-Uwe Rommel (rommel%informatik.tu-muenchen.dbp.de@relay.cs.net);
  it was posted in comp.binaries.os2 twice (two versions).
cpio.def is a linker definition file for the OS/2 version.


The main advantages of GNU cpio over the Unix versions are:

* It can access tape drives on other hosts using TCP/IP.

* It can use any I/O block size, with `+block-size'.

* `-o' and `-p' can copy symbolic links either as symbolic links or,
with `-L', as the files they point to.

* `-i' automatically recognizes ASCII, binary, and byte-swapped binary
cpio archives, and skips any junk between files, to try to recover
from corrupted archives.  `-b' and `-c' force it to only recognize
binary (either byte ordering) or ASCII archives.

* The output of '-itv' looks like 'ls -l'.

* It accepts long-named options as well as traditional
single-character options.

Some features of other versions of cpio are missing from GNU cpio, including:

* Byte swapping of data with `-i'.
-b	swap bytes and 16-bit words within each 32-bit word
-s	swap bytes within each 16-bit half-word (dd conv=swab can do this)
-S	swap 16-bit words within each 32-bit word

* The `-6' option to support Sixth Edition Unix cpio archives with `-i'.

* An option to limit volume size, like afio -s.

Mail suggestions and bug reports for GNU cpio to
bug-gnu-utils@prep.ai.mit.edu.
