RPM2CPIO(1)

📦
version 6.1.0 · 6 versions
, in ubuntu stonking

💖 rpm2cpio — the girlies' guide to yeeting files out of an RPM 💖

okay so bestie, you've got an RPM and you want the stuff inside it? say less. this is rpm2cpio, from the General Commands Manual (section 1, she's a user command, main character energy only). it's literally the girl who pops open an RPM Package Manager (RPM) package and hands you a cpio archive instead.

✨ NAME ✨

rpm2cpio — Extract cpio archive from RPM Package Manager (RPM) package 🎀

like. that's her whole job. that's the vibe.

🌸 SYNOPSIS 🌸

rpm2cpio PACKAGE_FILE

rpm2cpio -

two ways in, bestie: hand her a file, or hand her a - and she'll sip from standard input like it's a lil smoothie 🥤

🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋

okay so here's the tea 🍓 rpm2cpio converts the rpm package you specified into a cpio(1) archive, and it drops that archive on standard output. that's it. that's the whole thing. she does not write files for you, she does not hold your hand, she just streams the goods straight out and lets you pipe them wherever you want. lowkey elegant, ngl.

⚠️ okay real talk though, and I need you to actually listen: the cpio(5) format cannot host individual files over 4GB in size. not "struggles with", not "gets a lil weird about" — cannot. and because of that limitation, this tool is considered obsolete. 💀 official word. use rpm2archive(1) instead, fr fr. I still love her, but she's the girl who's serving a look that's been discontinued.

👑 ARGUMENTS 👑

  • PACKAGE_FILE — a binary or source RPM package. either flavor, she's not picky 💅

and then, the lil plot twist: if dash (-) is given as the argument, data is read from standard input instead. so you can absolutely pipe it in. iconique.

🔥 EXIT STATUS 🔥

she keeps it simple, no drama: on success, 0 is returned. a nonzero failure code otherwise. periodt. ✨

🧚 EXAMPLES 🧚

this is the part where it all clicks, I promise 🫶

rpm2cpio glint-1.0-1.i386.rpm | cpio -dium

Extract glint-1.0-1.i386.rpm contents relative to current directory. 🎀 classic. the pipe is doing the heavy lifting and she's just there for it.

cat glint-1.0-1.i386.rpm | rpm2cpio - | cpio -tv

View glint-1.0-1.i386.rpm file list with cpio(1). see? cat feeds her the -, she does her thing, cpio -tv shows you the list. that's the whole pipeline, it's giving choreography honestly 💅

🌈 SEE ALSO 🌈

and that's the page!! this was RPM 6.1.0, dated 2026-08-20, direct from the RPM2CPIO(1) manual page and she ate 💖 no cap, every single flag and detail is here, so go forth and pipe responsibly. mwah 🫶🌸💜

📦 where this page comes from