[filename generator] | afio -o [options] archive  : write archive
       afio -i [options] archive  : install archive
       afio -t [options] archive  : list table-of-contents of archive
       afio -r [options] archive  : verify archive against filesystem

Frequently used options:

General: -v : verbose
         -Z : with -o: gzip files when writing them to the archive,
              with -i/t/r: handle archive written with -Z option
         -5 : abort instead of creating archive incompatible with cpio

Install: -n : protect newer files  -k : skip corrupt data at beginning
Select:  -y [pattern] : only process files matching pattern
         -Y [pattern] : do not process files matching pattern

-h           Follow symbolic links, treating them as ordinary files and
             directories.

afio is a better way of dealing with cpio-format archives. It is generally faster than cpio, provides more diverse magnetic tape options and deals somewhat gracefully with input data corruption. It supports multivolume archives during interactive operation. afio can make compressed archives that are much safer than compressed tar or cpio archives. afio is best used as an "archive engine" in a backup script.

$ find . -depth -print0 | afio -px -0a new-dir

All my backups onto tape use afio.

http://www.linuxgazette.com/node/8447

The nice thing about using afio with the compression option is that because of the way that afio stores its archives, if one of the files becomes corrupted — hey, it can happen to anyone — it doesn't prevent you from retrieving the remainder of the intact files. If you tar and gzip an archive and it has an error, you're out of luck, pal. It's history. The whole thing.

Create an archive with compressed files:
find .... | afio -o -v -Z /dev/fd0H1440

Install (unpack) an archive with compressed files:
afio -i -v -Z achive

Install (unpack) an archive with  compressed  files,  protecting  newer
existing files:
afio -i -v -Z -n achive

Create an archive with compressed files on floppy disks:
find .... | afio -o -v -s 1440k -F -Z /dev/fd0H1440

Create an archive with all file contents encrypted by pgp:
export PGPPASSFD=3
find  ....  |  afio -ovz -Z -U -P pgp -Q -fc -Q +verbose=0 -3 3 archive
3<passphrasefile

Create an archive on recordable CDs using the cdrecord utility to write
each CD:
find .... | afio -o -b 2048 -s325000x -v '!cdrecord .... -'

Extract a single named file from an archive on /dev/tape:
afio -i -v -Z -y /home/me/thedir/thefile /dev/tape
(If  these do not exist yet, afio will also create the enclosing direc-
tories home/me/myfiledir under current working directory.)

Extract files matching a pattern from an archive on /dev/tape:
afio -i -v -Z -y '/home/me/*' /dev/tape
(If these do not  exist  yet,  afio  will  also  create  the  enclosing
directories home/me under current working directory.)

If your filesystem cannot handle files larger than 2GB, but you want to
make an archive on that filesystem that is larger than 2GB, you use the
following trick to split the archive into multiple files of each 1 GB:
find /home | afio -o ... - | split -b1024m - archive.
the  files will be called archive.aa, archive.ab, etc.  You can restore
the whole archive using:
cat archive.* | afio -i ... -
The wildcard expansion by the shell will ensure that cat will read  the
parts in the right (alphabetic) order.