xref: /openbsd/bin/dd/dd.1 (revision 404b540a)
1.\"	$OpenBSD: dd.1,v 1.23 2009/05/12 20:39:51 schwarze Exp $
2.\"	$NetBSD: dd.1,v 1.5 1995/03/21 09:04:04 cgd Exp $
3.\"
4.\" Copyright (c) 1990, 1993
5.\"	The Regents of the University of California.  All rights reserved.
6.\"
7.\" This code is derived from software contributed to Berkeley by
8.\" Keith Muller of the University of California, San Diego.
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22.\" THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE REGENTS AND CONTRIBUTORS ``AS IS'' AND
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33.\"
34.\"	@(#)dd.1	8.2 (Berkeley) 1/13/94
35.\"
36.Dd $Mdocdate: May 12 2009 $
37.Dt DD 1
38.Os
39.Sh NAME
40.Nm dd
41.Nd convert and copy a file
42.Sh SYNOPSIS
43.Nm dd
44.Op Ar operand ...
45.Sh DESCRIPTION
46The
47.Nm
48utility copies the standard input to the standard output, applying any
49specified conversions.
50Input data is read and written in 512-byte blocks.
51If input reads are short, input from multiple reads are aggregated
52to form the output block.
53When finished,
54.Nm
55displays the number of complete and partial input and output blocks
56and truncated input records to the standard error output.
57.Pp
58The following operands are available:
59.Bl -tag -width of=file
60.It Cm if= Ns Ar file
61Read input from
62.Ar file
63instead of the standard input.
64.It Cm of= Ns Ar file
65Write output to
66.Ar file
67instead of the standard output.
68Any regular output file is truncated unless the
69.Cm notrunc
70conversion value is specified.
71If an initial portion of the output file is skipped (see the
72.Cm seek
73operand),
74the output file is truncated at that point.
75.It Cm ibs= Ns Ar n
76Set the input block size to
77.Ar n
78bytes instead of the default 512.
79.It Cm obs= Ns Ar n
80Set the output block size to
81.Ar n
82bytes instead of the default 512.
83.It Cm bs= Ns Ar n
84Set both the input and output block size to
85.Ar n
86bytes, superseding the
87.Cm ibs
88and
89.Cm obs
90operands.
91If no conversion values other than
92.Cm noerror ,
93.Cm notrunc ,
94or
95.Cm sync
96are specified, then each input block is copied to the output as a
97single block without any aggregation of short blocks.
98.It Cm cbs= Ns Ar n
99Set the conversion record size to
100.Ar n
101bytes.
102The conversion record size is required by the record oriented conversion
103values.
104.It Cm count= Ns Ar n
105Copy only
106.Ar n
107input blocks.
108.It Cm files= Ns Ar n
109Copy
110.Ar n
111input files before terminating.
112This operand is only applicable when the input device is a tape.
113.It Cm seek= Ns Ar n
114Seek
115.Ar n
116blocks from the beginning of the output before copying.
117On non-tape devices, an
118.Xr lseek 2
119operation is used.
120Otherwise, existing blocks are read and the data discarded.
121If the user does not have read permission for the tape, it is positioned
122using the tape
123.Xr ioctl 2
124function calls.
125If the seek operation is past the end of file, space from the current
126end of file to the specified offset is filled with blocks of
127.Tn NUL
128bytes.
129.It Cm skip= Ns Ar n
130Skip
131.Ar n
132blocks from the beginning of the input before copying.
133On input which supports seeks, an
134.Xr lseek 2
135operation is used.
136Otherwise, input data is read and discarded.
137For pipes, the correct number of bytes is read.
138For all other devices, the correct number of blocks is read without
139distinguishing between a partial or complete block being read.
140.It Xo
141.Sm off
142.Cm conv= Ar value Oo ,
143.Sm on
144.Ar value ... Oc
145.Xc
146Where
147.Ar value
148is one of the symbols from the following list.
149.Bl -tag -width unblock
150.It Cm ascii , oldascii
151The same as the
152.Cm unblock
153value except that characters are translated from
154.Tn EBCDIC
155to
156.Tn ASCII
157before the
158records are converted.
159(These values imply
160.Cm unblock
161if the operand
162.Cm cbs
163is also specified.)
164There are two conversion maps for
165.Tn ASCII .
166The value
167.Cm ascii
168specifies the recommended one which is compatible with System V.
169The value
170.Cm oldascii
171specifies the one used in historic
172.Tn AT&T
173and pre-4.3BSD-reno systems.
174.It Cm block
175Treats the input as a sequence of newline or end-of-file terminated variable
176length records independent of input and output block boundaries.
177Any trailing newline character is discarded.
178Each input record is converted to a fixed length output record where the
179length is specified by the
180.Cm cbs
181operand.
182Input records shorter than the conversion record size are padded with spaces.
183Input records longer than the conversion record size are truncated.
184The number of truncated input records, if any, is reported to the standard
185error output at the completion of the copy.
186.It Cm ebcdic , ibm , oldebcdic , oldibm
187The same as the
188.Cm block
189value except that characters are translated from
190.Tn ASCII
191to
192.Tn EBCDIC
193after the
194records are converted.
195(These values imply
196.Cm block
197if the operand
198.Cm cbs
199is also specified.)
200There are four conversion maps for
201.Tn EBCDIC .
202The value
203.Cm ebcdic
204specifies the recommended one which is compatible with
205.At V .
206The value
207.Cm ibm
208is a slightly different mapping, which is compatible with the
209.At V
210.Cm ibm
211value.
212The values
213.Cm oldebcdic
214and
215.Cm oldibm
216are maps used in historic
217.Tn AT&T
218and pre-4.3BSD-reno systems.
219.It Cm lcase
220Transform uppercase characters into lowercase characters.
221.It Cm noerror
222Do not stop processing on an input error.
223When an input error occurs, a diagnostic message followed by the current
224input and output block counts will be written to the standard error output
225in the same format as the standard completion message.
226If the
227.Cm sync
228conversion is also specified, any missing input data will be replaced
229with
230.Tn NUL
231bytes (or with spaces if a block oriented conversion value was
232specified) and processed as a normal input buffer.
233If the
234.Cm sync
235conversion is not specified, the input block is omitted from the output.
236On input files which are not tapes or pipes, the file offset
237will be positioned past the block in which the error occurred using
238.Xr lseek 2 .
239.It Cm notrunc
240Do not truncate the output file.
241This will preserve any blocks in the output file not explicitly written
242by
243.Nm dd .
244The
245.Cm notrunc
246value is not supported for tapes.
247.It Cm osync
248Pad the final output block to the full output block size.
249If the input file is not a multiple of the output block size
250after conversion, this conversion forces the final output block
251to be the same size as preceding blocks for use on devices that require
252regularly sized blocks to be written.
253This option is incompatible with use of the
254.Cm bs= Ns Ar n
255block size specification.
256.It Cm swab
257Swap every pair of input bytes.
258If an input buffer has an odd number of bytes, the last byte will be
259ignored during swapping.
260.It Cm sync
261Pad every input block to the input buffer size.
262Spaces are used for pad bytes if a block oriented conversion value is
263specified, otherwise
264.Tn NUL
265bytes are used.
266.It Cm ucase
267Transform lowercase characters into uppercase characters.
268.It Cm unblock
269Treats the input as a sequence of fixed length records independent of input
270and output block boundaries.
271The length of the input records is specified by the
272.Cm cbs
273operand.
274Any trailing space characters are discarded and a newline character is
275appended.
276.El
277.El
278.Pp
279Where sizes are specified, a decimal number of bytes is expected.
280If the number ends with a
281.Sq b ,
282.Sq k ,
283.Sq m ,
284or
285.Sq w ,
286the number
287is multiplied by 512, 1024 (1K), 1048576 (1M), or the number of bytes
288in an integer, respectively.
289Two or more numbers may be separated by an
290.Sq x
291to indicate a product.
292.Pp
293When finished,
294.Nm
295displays the number of complete and partial input and output blocks,
296truncated input records, and odd-length byte-swapping blocks to the
297standard error output.
298A partial input block is one where less than the input block size
299was read.
300A partial output block is one where less than the output block size
301was written.
302Partial output blocks to tape devices are considered fatal errors.
303Otherwise, the rest of the block will be written.
304Partial output blocks to character devices will produce a warning message.
305A truncated input block is one where a variable length record oriented
306conversion value was specified and the input line was too long to
307fit in the conversion record or was not newline terminated.
308.Pp
309Normally, data resulting from input or conversion or both are aggregated
310into output blocks of the specified size.
311After the end of input is reached, any remaining output is written as
312a block.
313This means that the final output block may be shorter than the output
314block size.
315.Pp
316If
317.Nm
318receives a
319.Dv SIGINFO
320(see the
321.Dq status
322argument for
323.Xr stty 1 )
324signal, the current input and output block counts will
325be written to the standard error output
326in the same format as the standard completion message.
327If
328.Nm
329receives a
330.Dv SIGINT
331signal, the current input and output block counts will
332be written to the standard error output
333in the same format as the standard completion message and
334.Nm
335will exit.
336.Pp
337.Ex -std dd
338.Sh EXAMPLES
339Write an
340.Ox
341floppy image to a floppy disk:
342.Pp
343.Dl # dd if=floppy34.fs of=/dev/rfd0c bs=32k
344.Pp
345Create an ISO-9660 image of a CD-ROM:
346.Pp
347.Dl # dd if=/dev/rcd0c of=disk.iso bs=32k
348.Sh SEE ALSO
349.Xr cp 1 ,
350.Xr mt 1 ,
351.Xr tr 1
352.Sh STANDARDS
353The
354.Nm
355utility is compliant with the
356.St -p1003.1-2008
357specification.
358.Pp
359The conversions
360.Cm ascii ,
361.Cm ebcdic ,
362and
363.Cm ibm
364are compliant with the
365.St -xpg4
366specification.
367.Pp
368The
369.Cm files
370operand,
371the conversions
372.Cm oldascii ,
373.Cm oldebcdic ,
374.Cm oldibm ,
375and
376.Cm osync ,
377and the size multipliers
378.Sq m
379and
380.Sq w
381are all extensions to those specifications.
382