FreeBSD Man Pages

dd(1)

NAME

     dd -- convert and copy a file

SYNOPSIS

     dd [operands ...]

DESCRIPTION

     The dd utility copies the standard input to the standard output.  Input
     data is read and written in 512-byte blocks.  If input reads are short,
     input from multiple reads are aggregated 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:

     bs=n     Set both 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 aggregation
	      of short blocks.

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

     count=n  Copy only n input blocks.

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

     fillchar=c
	      When padding a block in conversion mode or due to use of noerror
	      and sync modes, fill with the specified ASCII character, rather
	      than using a space or NUL.

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

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

     iseek=n  Seek on the input file n blocks.	This is synonymous with
	      skip=n.

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

     of=file  Write output to file instead of the standard output.  Any regu-
	      lar output file is truncated unless the notrunc conversion value
	      is specified.  If an initial portion of the output file is
	      seeked past (see the oseek operand), the output file is trun-
	      cated at that point.

     oseek=n  Seek on the output file n blocks.  This is synonymous with
	      seek=n.

     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
	      correct number of blocks is read without distinguishing between
	      a partial 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 op-
		       erand cbs is also specified.)  There are two conversion
		       maps for ASCII.	The value ascii specifies the recom-
		       mended one which is compatible with AT&T System V UNIX.
		       The value oldascii specifies the one used in historic
		       AT&T UNIX 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 new-
		       line character is discarded.  Each input record is con-
		       verted 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, are 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
		       compatible with the AT&T System V UNIX ibm value.  The
		       values oldebcdic and oldibm are maps used in historic
		       AT&T UNIX and pre-4.3BSD-Reno systems.

	      lcase    Transform uppercase characters into lowercase charac-
		       ters.

	      pareven, parnone, parodd, parset
		       Output data with the specified parity.  The parity bit
		       on input is stripped unless EBCDIC to ASCII conversions
		       is also specified.

	      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 writ-
		       ten to the standard error output in the same format as
		       the standard completion message.  If the sync conver-
		       sion is also specified, any missing input data will be
		       replaced with NUL bytes (or with spaces if a block ori-
		       ented conversion value was specified) and processed as
		       a normal input buffer.  If the fillchar option is spec-
		       ified, the fill character provided on the command line
		       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 out-
		       put 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.

	      sparse   If one or more output blocks would consist solely of
		       NUL bytes, try to seek the output file by the required
		       space instead of filling them with NULs, resulting in a
		       sparse file.

	      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 op-
		       erand.  Any trailing space characters are discarded and
		       a newline character is appended.

     Where sizes are specified, a decimal, octal, or hexadecimal number of
     bytes is expected.  If the number ends with a ``b'', ``k'', ``m'', ``g'',
     or ``w'', the number is multiplied by 512, 1024 (1K), 1048576 (1M),
     1073741824 (1G) 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

	   dd if=/dev/ad0 of=/dev/null bs=1m

     Do a refresh of a disk drive, in order to prevent presently recoverable
     read errors from progressing into unrecoverable read errors:

	   dd if=/dev/ad0 of=/dev/ad0 bs=1m

     Remove parity bit from a file:

	   dd if=file conv=parnone of=file.txt

     Check for (even) parity errors on a file:

	   dd if=file conv=pareven | cmp -x - file

DIAGNOSTICS

     The dd utility exits 0 on success, and >0 if an error occurs.

SEE ALSO

     cp(1), mt(1), tr(1)

STANDARDS

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

FreeBSD 5.4			August 15, 2004 		   FreeBSD 5.4

SPONSORED LINKS