pax uses the standard input/output for archive and listing operations. This can be changed with the "tar-style" option that specifies the archive file. Pax differs from cpio by recursively considering the content of a directory; to disable this behavior, POSIX pax has an option to disable it. The command is a mish-mash of and features. Like , processes directory entries recursively, a feature that can be disabled with for cpio-style behavior. The handling of file input/outputs is also a mix: when a list of file names is specified on the command line, they are taken as shell globs for file input or listing (tar-like); otherwise takes the -style behavior of using the standard input for a file list. Finally, supports reading/writing to a named archive file using tar's option. For example, if one desires a cpio-style archiving of the current directory, can be used with just like one does using cpio: (This construct is pointless without any filters for , as it becomes identical to the above example.) The command for extracting the contents for an archive is the same as : It is possible to invoke these commands in a tar-like syntax as well: Compression Most implementations of pax use the (gzip) and (bzip2) switches for compression; this feature however, is not specified by POSIX. It is important to note that pax cannot append to compressed archives. Example for extracting a gzipped archive: As in tar and cpio, pax output can be piped to another compressor/decompressor program. As an example xz is used here: and listing an xz-compressed archive as the input: Format support POSIX.1-2001 requires that pax command supports the archive formats cpio, ustar and pax at a minimum. The versions of pax command that stem from the 4.4BSD implementation usually inherit the formats supported by that version, selectable via the option: cpio – The extended cpio interchange format specified in the IEEE Std 1003.2 ("POSIX.2") standard. bcpio – The old binary cpio format. sv4cpio – The System V release 4 cpio. sv4crc – The System V release 4 cpio with file crc checksums. tar – The old BSD tar format as found in BSD4.3. ustar (default) – The tar interchange format specified in the IEEE Std 1003.2 ("POSIX.2") standard. The POSIX.1-2001 pax format is not supported by this BSD version of pax command. The format is not supported on most Linux distributions (whose pax command is from