pax ☆

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Description:
Portable Archive Interchange archive tool

Type: Formula | Tracked Since: Dec 28, 2025

Links: Homepage | formulae.brew.sh

Category: System utilities

Tags: archiving posix tar cpio cli utilities

Install: brew install pax

About:
Pax is a POSIX-compliant archive tool that reads and writes tar, cpio, and other archive formats. It offers a unified interface for creating, extracting, and manipulating archives, serving as a portable alternative to specialized utilities. Its main value is providing a single, standards-based command for diverse archival tasks.

Key Features:

POSIX standard compliance for cross-platform scripting
Supports multiple formats including tar and cpio
Unified command-line interface for archive operations
Portable and lightweight implementation

Use Cases:

Creating portable software distribution archives
Extracting legacy cpio or tar files in a consistent workflow
Automating backup and data interchange scripts

Alternatives:

tar – GNU tar is more feature-rich and widely used, but pax offers a standardized interface.
cpio – cpio is specialized for its format; pax provides a modern, unified alternative.

Version History

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