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CPIO

cpio icon

Unix CPIO archive

File type: Archive and compressed file

Files with cpio suffix are compressed archives in special CPIO format used mainly on UNIX systems.

What is cpio file?

File type category:
Archive and compressed file

Date updated: July 19, 2025

File extension cpio is generally used for a CPIO archive used in UNIX system.

A .cpio file is a stream of files and directories in a single archive, and often ends with a .cpio file extension. The archive has header information that allows for an application such as the GNU cpio tool to extract the files and directories into a file system. The header of a cpio archive also contains information such as the file name, time stamp, owner and permissions.

MIME: application/x-cpio

How to open cpio file?

Many file archivers support CPIO format and can extract or repack the files.

How to convert cpio file?

Can be repacked to other compressed formats, however only some of them will be recognized in UNIX programs.

Suggested software to open cpio file:

Associated software actions with the cpio file

Software applications that can open cpio files:

Microsoft Windows

Apple macOS / Mac OS X

Programs for viewing cpio files:

Microsoft Windows

Apple macOS / Mac OS X

Software apps that create cpio files:

Microsoft Windows

Software apps that extract cpio files:

Related file extensions