Notes

archive: pax -wf archive /what
append to archive: pax -waf archive /more
unpack: pax -rf archive # unpacks in current directory
list: pax -f archive | $PAGER

the -z option adds gzip compression as with tar.

Also the -i and -v options work as per convention.

exclude file with the -c 'file' command or only file with -n 'file'. Like:

pax -rf archive -c 'ignoreme' && pax -rf archive -n 'onlyme'

gzip -# works well for the archives, where # is 0-9 low-high compression.