cpio(1) is the original Unix file interchange
tape program for magnetic media. cpio(1) has options (among
many others) to perform byte-swapping, write a number of
different archives format, and pipe the data to other programs.
This last feature makes cpio(1) and excellent choice for
installation media. cpio(1) does not know how to walk
the directory tree and a list of files must be provided thru STDIN.
cpio(1) does not support backups across the
network. You can use a pipeline and rsh(1) to send the
data to a remote tape drive. (XXX add an example command)