CPIO

Generated by scripts/gen-format-pages.py from docs/data/format-metadata/, FILE_FORMATS.csv and docs/formats-master.csv. Do not edit by hand: change the source, then run the script.

cpio Archive Preview.

At a glance


Purpose	A cpio archive in the newc, crc, odc (old ASCII) or old binary format, as used for Linux initramfs and RPM payloads.
Extensions	`.cpio`
Poka parser	`poka-cpio`
Viewer	`poka-table-viewer`
Depth tier	Parser with a shared viewer (see Depth tiers)
Breadth tier	B4 Summary (see Breadth tiers)

How much Poka reads

B4 Summary. The container and metadata are read and summarised (counts, properties, structure), but the main content is not rendered.

Confidence: medium (the reviewer read the code). Basis: Reviewed 2026-10-26: read parsers/poka-cpio/src/main.rs (498 lines) and plugin.json. The four unit tests cover the formats and entries running past the end; the corpus has no .cpio sample. Covers .cpio and .cpio-archive. The table lists every entry with path, type, size, mode, UID and GID, modification time and link count, with a type summary. Judgement: B4: the archive is listed but no member is extracted or shown.

What Poka does not read

Member contents are not extracted or shown
Big-endian old binary archives are not recognised (only the little-endian form)
Symlink targets and device numbers are not shown
The crc variant's checksums are not verified
Only the first 5,000 entries are listed

Libraries

Libraries Poka uses or has assessed for this format, with the status, licence and language the registry records.

cpio (candidate; MIT; Rust; https://github.com/jcreekmore/cpio-rs)

Sources

parsers/poka-cpio/src/main.rs
parsers/poka-cpio/plugin.json