cpio -ncpio switch

[Arnold D. Robbins]

In article <306 at uncle.UUCP> jbm at uncle.UUCP (John B. Milton) writes:
>I have heard of a program called "ncpio". What is it?
>Why does find(1) have a "-ncpio" switch?
>When I do "find . -print -ncpio file"
>I get:
>./.History
>Memory fault - core dumped

Find -cpio by default uses cpio format with binary headers. The (sadly,
undocumented) -ncpio option causes it to create "cpio -c" format files,
i.e. ones that use the portable, ASCII headers.

As to why it core dumps, I suspect that the -print is wrong. The correct
usage might be

	find . -ncpio > /dev/rfp021	# for example

This is, of course, merely an educated guess.

** mild flame **
Personally, putting cpio into find was a mistake, and runs counter to the
Unix philosophy of "doing one thing well". Sadly, no-one but the people
in BTL Research really seem to believe in that anymore.
** flame extinguished **
-- 
"Crack-pot societies of all kinds sprang up everwhere, advocating everything
from absolutism to anarchy. Queer cults arose, preaching free love, the
imminent end of the world, and many other departures from the norm of thought."
-- E.E. "Doc" Smith, Children of the Lens, 1954 | Arnold Robbins, skeeve!arnold