For a Unix or Linux installation, Oracle places its installation files in cpio (archiving format) to contain multiple directory structures in a single file. This article describes the use of the cpio utility to extract Oracle installation files.

1. Download your oracle installation files from www.oracle.com

2. Logon to your Oracle database server and place the installation files in the appropriate location.

3. Extract the cpio.gz installation software with the following command.

gunzip (name_of_cpio_file .cpio.gz)

4. Unpack the archive file using the cpio utility with options –idmv

cpio -idmv < (name_of_cpio_file.cpio)
NOTE: replace the string (name_of_cpio_file .cpio) with your actual cpio file name, but do not remove the first < - greater than sign, that is the input of your file name into the utility. 5. This completes unpacking of Oracle installation files with the utility cpio. Larry J. Catt, OCP 9i, 10g oracle@allcompute.com www.allcompute.com