$ cpio --list -i <td.cpio
.
t2
t1
t3
1 block
$


##</code><code>##

#!/opt/ActivePerl-5.12/bin/perl
use Archive::Cpio;
my $cpio = Archive::Cpio->new;
$cpio->read('td.cpio');
$cpio->remove('t1');
$cpio->write('tdnew.cpio');


##</code><code>##

sub remove {
    my ($cpio, @filenames) = @_;
    $cpio->{list} or die "can't remove from nothing\n";
    my %filenames = map { $_ => 1 } @filenames;
    @{$cpio->{list}} = grep { !$filenames{$_} } @{$cpio->{list}};
}