3CPIO(1) 3cpio 3CPIO(1)

3cpio - manage initrd cpio archives

3cpio --count ARCHIVE

3cpio {-c|--create} [-v|--debug] [-C DIR] [ARCHIVE] < manifest

3cpio {-e|--examine} ARCHIVE

3cpio {-t|--list} [-v|--debug] ARCHIVE

3cpio {-x|--extract} [-v|--debug] [-C DIR] [-p] [-s NAME] [--force] ARCHIVE

3cpio {-V|--version}

3cpio {-h|--help}

3cpio is a tool to manage initramfs cpio files for the Linux kernel. The Linux kernel’s initramfs buffer format https://www.kernel.org/doc/html/latest/driver-api/early-userspace/buffer-format.html is based around the newc or crc cpio formats. Multiple cpio archives can be concatenated and the last archive can be compressed. Different compression algorithms can be used depending on what support was compiled into the Linux kernel. 3cpio is tailored to initramfs cpio files and will not gain support for other cpio formats.

Following compression formats are supported: bzip2, gzip, lz4, lzma, lzop, xz, zstd.

--count ARCHIVE

Print the number of concatenated cpio archives.

-c, --create [ARCHIVE]

Create a new cpio archive. Read the manifest from the standard input. See the MANIFEST section for the description of the manifest format. Write the cpio archive to standard output or to the specified ARCHIVE file if provided. The permission of the ARCHIVE file will be determined by the permission of the input files (to avoid leaking sensitive information).

-e, --examine ARCHIVE

List the offsets of the cpio archives and their compression.

-t, --list ARCHIVE

List the contents of the cpio archives. By default only the file names are printed. If --verbose is specified, the long listing format is used (similar to ls --long). If --debug is specified, the inode is printed in addition to the long format.

-x, --extract ARCHIVE

Extract cpio archives.

-V, --version

Print version number.

-h, --help

Print help message.

-C DIR, --directory=DIR

Change directory before performing any operation, but after opening the ARCHIVE. This option is only taken into account in the --extract mode.

-p, --preserve-permissions

Set permissions of extracted files to those recorded in the archive (default for superuser). This option is only taken into account in the --extract mode.

-s NAME, --subdir=NAME

Extract the cpio archives into separate sub-directories (using the given NAME plus an incrementing number). This option is only taken into account in the --extract mode.

-v, --verbose

Verbose output. This option is only taken into account in the --extract and --list modes.

--debug

Debug output. This option is only taken into account in the --extract and --list modes.

--force

Force overwriting existing files. This option is only taken into account in the --extract mode.

When generating initrd cpio archives, following manifest format will be used. The manifest is a text format that is parsed line by line.

If the line starts with #cpio it is interpreted as section marker to start a new cpio. A compression may be specified by adding a colon followed by the compression format and an optional compression level. Example for a Zstandard-compressed cpio with compression level 9:

#cpio: zstd -9

All lines starting with # excluding #cpio (see above) will be treated as comments and will be ignored.

Each element in the line is separated by a tab and is expected to be one of the following file types:

<location> <name> file <mode> <uid> <gid> <mtime> <filesize>
<location> <name> dir <mode> <uid> <gid> <mtime>
<location> <name> block <mode> <uid> <gid> <mtime> <major> <minor>
<location> <name> char <mode> <uid> <gid> <mtime> <major> <minor>
<location> <name> link <mode> <uid> <gid> <mtime> <target>
<location> <name> fifo <mode> <uid> <gid> <mtime>
<location> <name> sock <mode> <uid> <gid> <mtime>

fifo is also known as named pipe (see fifo(7)).

In case an element is empty or equal to - it is treated as not specified and it is derived from the input file.

<location>

Path of the input file. It can be left unspecified in case all other needed fields are specified (and the file is otherwise empty). Limitation: The path must not start with #, be equal to -, or contain tabs.

<name>

Path of the file inside the cpio. If the name is left unspecified it will be derived from <location>. Limitation: The path must not be equal to - or contain tabs.

<mode>

File mode specified in octal.

<uid>

User ID (owner) of the file specified in decimal.

<gid>

Group ID of the file specified in decimal.

<mtime>

Modification time of the file specified as seconds since the Epoch (1970-01-01 00:00 UTC). The specified time might be clamped by the time set in the SOURCE_DATE_EPOCH environment variable.

<filesize>

Size of the input file in bytes. 3cpio will fail in case the input file is smaller than the provided file size.

<major>

Major block/character device number in decimal.

<minor>

Minor block/character device number in decimal.

<target>

Target of the symbolic link. Limitation: The target path must not be equal to - or contain tabs.

Limitations: Files cannot start with # (will be treated as comment), be equal to - (will be treated as not specified), or contain tabs (will be split by tabs). These limitations of the manifest file are not expected to cause problems in practice.

SOURCE_DATE_EPOCH

This environment variable will be taken into account when creating cpio archive. All modification times that are newer than the time specified in "SOURCE_DATE_EPOCH" will be clamped. Compressors will run with only one thread in case their multithreading implementation is not reproducible. The created cpio archive will be reproducible across multiple runs.

0

Success.

1

Failure.

List the number of cpio archives that an initramfs file contains:

$ 3cpio --count /boot/initrd.img
4

Examine the content of the initramfs cpio on an Ubuntu 24.04 system:

$ 3cpio --examine /boot/initrd.img
0        cpio
77312        cpio
7286272        cpio
85523968        zstd

This initramfs cpio consists of three uncompressed cpio archives followed by a Zstandard-compressed cpio archive.

List the content of the initramfs cpio on an Ubuntu 24.04 system:

$ 3cpio --list /boot/initrd.img
.
kernel
kernel/x86
kernel/x86/microcode
kernel/x86/microcode/AuthenticAMD.bin
kernel
kernel/x86
kernel/x86/microcode
kernel/x86/microcode/.enuineIntel.align.0123456789abc
kernel/x86/microcode/GenuineIntel.bin
.
usr
usr/lib
usr/lib/firmware
usr/lib/firmware/3com
usr/lib/firmware/3com/typhoon.bin.zst
[...]

The first cpio contains only the AMD microcode. The second cpio contains only the Intel microcode. The third cpio contains firmware files and kernel modules.

Extract the content of the initramfs cpio to the initrd subdirectory on an Ubuntu 24.04 system:

$ 3cpio --extract -C initrd /boot/initrd.img
$ ls initrd
bin   cryptroot  init    lib    lib.usr-is-merged  run   scripts  var
conf  etc        kernel  lib64  libx32             sbin  usr

Create a cpio archive similar to the other cpio tools using the find command:

$ cd inputdir && find . | sort | 3cpio --create ../example.cpio

Due to its manifest file format support, 3cpio can create cpio archives without the need of copying files into a temporary directory first. Example for creating an early microcode cpio image directly using the system installed files:

$ cat manifest
-        kernel        dir        755        0        0        1751654557
-        kernel/x86        dir        755        0        0        1752011622
/usr/lib/firmware/amd-ucode        kernel/x86/microcode
/usr/lib/firmware/amd-ucode/microcode_amd_fam19h.bin        kernel/x86/microcode/AuthenticAMD.bin
$ 3cpio --create amd-ucode.img < manifest
$ 3cpio --list --verbose amd-ucode.img
drwxr-xr-x   2 root     root            0 Jul  4 20:42 kernel
drwxr-xr-x   2 root     root            0 Jul  8 23:53 kernel/x86
drwxr-xr-x   2 root     root            0 Jun 10 10:51 kernel/x86/microcode
-rw-r--r--   1 root     root       100684 Mar 23 22:42 kernel/x86/microcode/AuthenticAMD.bin

Example for creating an initrd image containing of an uncompressed early microcode cpio followed by a Zstandard-compressed cpio:

$ cat manifest
#cpio
-        kernel        dir        755        0        0        1751654557
-        kernel/x86        dir        755        0        0        1752011622
/usr/lib/firmware/amd-ucode        kernel/x86/microcode
/usr/lib/firmware/amd-ucode/microcode_amd_fam19h.bin        kernel/x86/microcode/AuthenticAMD.bin
#cpio: zstd -9
/
/bin
/usr
/usr/bin
/usr/bin/bash
# This is a comment. Leaving the remaining files as task for the reader.
$ 3cpio --create initrd.img < manifest
$ 3cpio --examine initrd.img
0        cpio
101332        zstd
$ 3cpio --list --verbose initrd.img
drwxr-xr-x   2 root     root            0 Jul  4 20:42 kernel
drwxr-xr-x   2 root     root            0 Jul  8 23:53 kernel/x86
drwxr-xr-x   2 root     root            0 Jun 10 10:51 kernel/x86/microcode
-rw-r--r--   1 root     root       100684 Mar 23 22:42 kernel/x86/microcode/AuthenticAMD.bin
drwxr-xr-x   2 root     root            0 Jun  5 14:11 .
lrwxrwxrwx   1 root     root            7 Mar 20  2022 bin -> usr/bin
drwxr-xr-x   2 root     root            0 Apr 20  2023 usr
drwxr-xr-x   2 root     root            0 Jul  9 09:56 usr/bin
-rwxr-xr-x   1 root     root      1740896 Mar  5 03:35 usr/bin/bash

bsdcpio(1), cpio(1), lsinitramfs(8), lsinitrd(1)

Copyright © 2024-2025 Benjamin Drung. Free use of this software is granted under the terms of the ISC License.

Benjamin Drung

2025-07-31 3cpio 0.5.1