dd man page on MirBSD

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DD(1)			     BSD Reference Manual			 DD(1)

NAME
     dd - convert and copy a file

SYNOPSIS
     dd [operands ...]

DESCRIPTION
     The dd utility copies the standard input to the standard output, applying
     any specified conversions. Input data is read and written in 512-byte
     blocks. If input reads are short, input from multiple reads are aggregat-
     ed to form the output block. When finished, dd displays the number of
     complete and partial input and output blocks and truncated input records
     to the standard error output.

     The following operands are available:

     if=file  Read input from file instead of the standard input.

     of=file  Write output to file instead of the standard output. Any regular
	      output file is truncated unless the notrunc conversion value is
	      specified. If an initial portion of the output file is skipped
	      (see the seek operand), the output file is truncated at that
	      point.

     ibs=n    Set the input block size to n bytes instead of the default 512.

     obs=n    Set the output block size to n bytes instead of the default 512.

     bs=n     Set both the input and output block size to n bytes, superseding
	      the ibs and obs operands. If no conversion values other than
	      noerror, notrunc, or sync are specified, then each input block
	      is copied to the output as a single block without any aggrega-
	      tion of short blocks.

     cbs=n    Set the conversion record size to n bytes. The conversion record
	      size is required by the record oriented conversion values.

     count=n  Copy only n input blocks.

     files=n  Copy n input files before terminating. This operand is only ap-
	      plicable when the input device is a tape.

     seek=n   Seek n blocks from the beginning of the output before copying.
	      On non-tape devices, an lseek(2) operation is used. Otherwise,
	      existing blocks are read and the data discarded. If the user
	      does not have read permission for the tape, it is positioned us-
	      ing the tape ioctl(2) function calls. If the seek operation is
	      past the end of file, space from the current end of file to the
	      specified offset is filled with blocks of NUL bytes.

     skip=n   Skip n blocks from the beginning of the input before copying. On
	      input which supports seeks, an lseek(2) operation is used. Oth-
	      erwise, input data is read and discarded. For pipes, the correct
	      number of bytes is read. For all other devices, the correct
	      number of blocks is read without distinguishing between a par-
	      tial or complete block being read.

     conv=value[,value ...]
	      Where value is one of the symbols from the following list.

	      ascii, oldascii
		       The same as the unblock value except that characters
		       are translated from EBCDIC to ASCII before the records
		       are converted. (These values imply unblock if the
		       operand cbs is also specified.) There are two conver-
		       sion maps for ASCII. The value ascii specifies the
		       recommended one which is compatible with System V. The
		       value oldascii specifies the one used in historic AT&T
		       and pre-4.3BSD-reno systems.

	      block    Treats the input as a sequence of newline or end-of-
		       file terminated variable length records independent of
		       input and output block boundaries. Any trailing newline
		       character is discarded. Each input record is converted
		       to a fixed length output record where the length is
		       specified by the cbs operand. Input records shorter
		       than the conversion record size are padded with spaces.
		       Input records longer than the conversion record size
		       are truncated. The number of truncated input records,
		       if any, is reported to the standard error output at the
		       completion of the copy.

	      ebcdic, ibm, oldebcdic, oldibm
		       The same as the block value except that characters are
		       translated from ASCII to EBCDIC after the records are
		       converted. (These values imply block if the operand cbs
		       is also specified.) There are four conversion maps for
		       EBCDIC. The value ebcdic specifies the recommended one
		       which is compatible with AT&T System V UNIX. The value
		       ibm is a slightly different mapping, which is compati-
		       ble with the AT&T System V UNIX ibm value. The values
		       oldebcdic and oldibm are maps used in historic AT&T and
		       pre-4.3BSD-reno systems.

	      lcase    Transform uppercase characters into lowercase charac-
		       ters.

	      noerror  Do not stop processing on an input error. When an input
		       error occurs, a diagnostic message followed by the
		       current input and output block counts will be written
		       to the standard error output in the same format as the
		       standard completion message. If the sync conversion is
		       also specified, any missing input data will be replaced
		       with NUL bytes (or with spaces if a block oriented
		       conversion value was specified) and processed as a nor-
		       mal input buffer. If the sync conversion is not speci-
		       fied, the input block is omitted from the output. On
		       input files which are not tapes or pipes, the file
		       offset will be positioned past the block in which the
		       error occurred using lseek(2).

	      notrunc  Do not truncate the output file. This will preserve any
		       blocks in the output file not explicitly written by dd.
		       The notrunc value is not supported for tapes.

	      osync    Pad the final output block to the full output block
		       size. If the input file is not a multiple of the output
		       block size after conversion, this conversion forces the
		       final output block to be the same size as preceding
		       blocks for use on devices that require regularly sized
		       blocks to be written. This option is incompatible with
		       use of the bs=n block size specification.

	      swab     Swap every pair of input bytes. If an input buffer has
		       an odd number of bytes, the last byte will be ignored
		       during swapping.

	      sync     Pad every input block to the input buffer size. Spaces
		       are used for pad bytes if a block oriented conversion
		       value is specified, otherwise NUL bytes are used.

	      ucase    Transform lowercase characters into uppercase charac-
		       ters.

	      unblock  Treats the input as a sequence of fixed length records
		       independent of input and output block boundaries. The
		       length of the input records is specified by the cbs
		       operand. Any trailing space characters are discarded
		       and a newline character is appended.

     Where sizes are specified, a decimal number of bytes is expected. If the
     number ends with a 'b', 'k', 'm', or 'w', the number is multiplied by
     512, 1024 (1K), 1048576 (1M), or the number of bytes in an integer,
     respectively. Two or more numbers may be separated by an 'x' to indicate
     a product.

     When finished, dd displays the number of complete and partial input and
     output blocks, truncated input records, and odd-length byte-swapping
     blocks to the standard error output. A partial input block is one where
     less than the input block size was read. A partial output block is one
     where less than the output block size was written. Partial output blocks
     to tape devices are considered fatal errors. Otherwise, the rest of the
     block will be written. Partial output blocks to character devices will
     produce a warning message. A truncated input block is one where a vari-
     able length record oriented conversion value was specified and the input
     line was too long to fit in the conversion record or was not newline ter-
     minated.

     Normally, data resulting from input or conversion or both are aggregated
     into output blocks of the specified size. After the end of input is
     reached, any remaining output is written as a block. This means that the
     final output block may be shorter than the output block size.

     If dd receives a SIGINFO (see the "status" argument for stty(1)) signal,
     the current input and output block counts will be written to the standard
     error output in the same format as the standard completion message. If dd
     receives a SIGINT signal, the current input and output block counts will
     be written to the standard error output in the same format as the stan-
     dard completion message and dd will exit.

     The dd utility exits 0 on success or >0 if an error occurred.

EXAMPLES
     # dd if=floppy34.fs of=/dev/rfd0c bs=32k

     Write an OpenBSD floppy image to a floppy disk.

SEE ALSO
     cp(1), mt(1), tr(1)

STANDARDS
     The dd utility is expected to be a superset of the IEEE Std 1003.2 ("PO-
     SIX.2") standard. The files operand and the ascii, ebcdic, ibm, oldascii,
     oldebcdic, and oldibm values are extensions to the POSIX standard.

MirOS BSD #10-current	       January 13, 1994				     2
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