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GNU cpio vs bsdtar (libarchive): catalog facts
GNU cpio	bsdtar (libarchive)
Free Free software from the GNU Project.	Free Free and open source with no paid tier.
Linux, Command line	Windows, Linux, Command line
Reads and writes many cpio variants as well as tar Detects the archive format automatically when extracting	One tool reads many formats, including zip, rar and ISO Automatic format and compression detection
Command-line only, with an unusual syntax Limited to cpio and tar formats, no general compression features of its own	Writes fewer formats than it reads; rar is read-only Command-line only
Downloadable app	Downloadable app
Open source	Open source
License: GPL-3.0	License: BSD-2-Clause
No account needed	No account needed
Works offline	Works offline
Official website Full listing and sources Checked October 2, 2026	Official website Full listing and sources Checked September 23, 2026

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