xref: /netbsd-src/bin/dd/dd.1 (revision eb961d0e02b7a46a9acfa877b02df48df6637278)
1.\"	$NetBSD: dd.1,v 1.20 2006/01/12 21:42:11 wiz Exp $
2.\"
3.\" Copyright (c) 1990, 1993
4.\"	The Regents of the University of California.  All rights reserved.
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6.\" This code is derived from software contributed to Berkeley by
7.\" Keith Muller of the University of California, San Diego.
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33.\"	@(#)dd.1	8.2 (Berkeley) 1/13/94
34.\"
35.Dd January 9, 2006
36.Dt DD 1
37.Os
38.Sh NAME
39.Nm dd
40.Nd convert and copy a file
41.Sh SYNOPSIS
42.Nm
43.Op operands ...
44.Sh DESCRIPTION
45The
46.Nm
47utility copies the standard input to the standard output.
48Input data is read and written in 512-byte blocks.
49If input reads are short, input from multiple reads are aggregated
50to form the output block.
51When finished,
52.Nm
53displays the number of complete and partial input and output blocks
54and truncated input records to the standard error output.
55.Pp
56The following operands are available:
57.Bl -tag -width of=file
58.It Cm bs= Ns Ar n
59Set both input and output block size, superseding the
60.Cm ibs
61and
62.Cm obs
63operands.
64If no conversion values other than
65.Cm noerror ,
66.Cm notrunc
67or
68.Cm sync
69are specified, then each input block is copied to the output as a
70single block without any aggregation of short blocks.
71.It Cm cbs= Ns Ar n
72Set the conversion record size to
73.Va n
74bytes.
75The conversion record size is required by the record oriented conversion
76values.
77.It Cm count= Ns Ar n
78Copy only
79.Va n
80input blocks.
81.It Cm files= Ns Ar n
82Copy
83.Va n
84input files before terminating.
85This operand is only applicable when the input device is a tape.
86.It Cm ibs= Ns Ar n
87Set the input block size to
88.Va n
89bytes instead of the default 512.
90.It Cm if= Ns Ar file
91Read input from
92.Ar file
93instead of the standard input.
94.It Cm obs= Ns Ar n
95Set the output block size to
96.Va n
97bytes instead of the default 512.
98.It Cm of= Ns Ar file
99Write output to
100.Ar file
101instead of the standard output.
102Any regular output file is truncated unless the
103.Cm notrunc
104conversion value is specified.
105If an initial portion of the output file is skipped (see the
106.Cm seek
107operand)
108the output file is truncated at that point.
109.It Cm seek= Ns Ar n
110Seek
111.Va n
112blocks from the beginning of the output before copying.
113On non-tape devices, a
114.Xr lseek 2
115operation is used.
116Otherwise, existing blocks are read and the data discarded.
117If the user does not have read permission for the tape, it is positioned
118using the tape
119.Xr ioctl 2
120function calls.
121If the seek operation is past the end of file, space from the current
122end of file to the specified offset is filled with blocks of
123.Tn NUL
124bytes.
125.It Cm skip= Ns Ar n
126Skip
127.Va n
128blocks from the beginning of the input before copying.
129On input which supports seeks, a
130.Xr lseek 2
131operation is used.
132Otherwise, input data is read and discarded.
133For pipes, the correct number of bytes is read.
134For all other devices, the correct number of blocks is read without
135distinguishing between a partial or complete block being read.
136.It Cm progress= Ns Ar n
137Switch on display of progress if
138.Va n
139is set to any non-zero value.
140This will cause a
141.Dq \&.
142to be printed (to the standard error output) for every
143.Va n
144full or partial blocks written to the output file.
145.It Xo
146.Sm off
147.Cm conv=
148.Cm value Op \&, Cm value \&...
149.Sm on
150.Xc
151Where
152.Cm value
153is one of the symbols from the following list.
154.Bl -tag -width unblock
155.It Cm ascii , oldascii
156The same as the
157.Cm unblock
158value except that characters are translated from
159.Tn EBCDIC
160to
161.Tn ASCII
162before the
163records are converted.
164(These values imply
165.Cm unblock
166if the operand
167.Cm cbs
168is also specified.)
169There are two conversion maps for
170.Tn ASCII .
171The value
172.Cm ascii
173specifies the recommended one which is compatible with
174.At V .
175The value
176.Cm oldascii
177specifies the one used in historic
178.Tn AT\*[Am]T
179and pre-
180.Bx 4.3 Reno
181systems.
182.It Cm block
183Treats the input as a sequence of newline or end-of-file terminated variable
184length records independent of input and output block boundaries.
185Any trailing newline character is discarded.
186Each input record is converted to a fixed length output record where the
187length is specified by the
188.Cm cbs
189operand.
190Input records shorter than the conversion record size are padded with spaces.
191Input records longer than the conversion record size are truncated.
192The number of truncated input records, if any, are reported to the standard
193error output at the completion of the copy.
194.It Cm ebcdic , ibm , oldebcdic , oldibm
195The same as the
196.Cm block
197value except that characters are translated from
198.Tn ASCII
199to
200.Tn EBCDIC
201after the
202records are converted.
203(These values imply
204.Cm block
205if the operand
206.Cm cbs
207is also specified.)
208There are four conversion maps for
209.Tn EBCDIC .
210The value
211.Cm ebcdic
212specifies the recommended one which is compatible with
213.At V .
214The value
215.Cm ibm
216is a slightly different mapping, which is compatible with the
217.At V
218.Cm ibm
219value.
220The values
221.Cm oldebcdic
222and
223.Cm oldibm
224are maps used in historic
225.Tn AT\*[Am]T
226and pre
227.Bx 4.3 Reno
228systems.
229.It Cm lcase
230Transform uppercase characters into lowercase characters.
231.It Cm noerror
232Do not stop processing on an input error.
233When an input error occurs, a diagnostic message followed by the current
234input and output block counts will be written to the standard error output
235in the same format as the standard completion message.
236If the
237.Cm sync
238conversion is also specified, any missing input data will be replaced
239with
240.Tn NUL
241bytes (or with spaces if a block oriented conversion value was
242specified) and processed as a normal input buffer.
243If the
244.Cm sync
245conversion is not specified, the input block is omitted from the output.
246On input files which are not tapes or pipes, the file offset
247will be positioned past the block in which the error occurred using
248.Xr lseek 2 .
249.It Cm notrunc
250Do not truncate the output file.
251This will preserve any blocks in the output file not explicitly written
252by
253.Nm .
254The
255.Cm notrunc
256value is not supported for tapes.
257.It Cm osync
258Pad the final output block to the full output block size.
259If the input file is not a multiple of the output block size
260after conversion, this conversion forces the final output block
261to be the same size as preceding blocks for use on devices that require
262regularly sized blocks to be written.
263This option is incompatible with use of the
264.Cm bs= Ns Ar n
265block size specification.
266.It Cm sparse
267If one or more non-final output blocks would consist solely of
268.Dv NUL
269bytes, try to seek the output file by the required space instead of
270filling them with
271.Dv NUL Ns s .
272This results in a sparse file on some file systems.
273.It Cm swab
274Swap every pair of input bytes.
275If an input buffer has an odd number of bytes, the last byte will be
276ignored during swapping.
277.It Cm sync
278Pad every input block to the input buffer size.
279Spaces are used for pad bytes if a block oriented conversion value is
280specified, otherwise
281.Tn NUL
282bytes are used.
283.It Cm ucase
284Transform lowercase characters into uppercase characters.
285.It Cm unblock
286Treats the input as a sequence of fixed length records independent of input
287and output block boundaries.
288The length of the input records is specified by the
289.Cm cbs
290operand.
291Any trailing space characters are discarded and a newline character is
292appended.
293.El
294.El
295.Pp
296Where sizes are specified, a decimal number of bytes is expected.
297Two or more numbers may be separated by an
298.Dq x
299to indicate a product.
300Each number may have one of the following optional suffixes:
301.Bl -tag -width 3n -offset indent -compact
302.It b
303Block; multiply by 512
304.It k
305Kilo; multiply by 1024 (1 KB)
306.It m
307Mega; multiply by 1048576 (1 MB)
308.It g
309Giga; multiply by 1073741824 (1 GB)
310.It t
311Tera; multiply by 1099511627776 (1 TB)
312.It w
313Word; multiply by the number of bytes in an integer
314.El
315.Pp
316When finished,
317.Nm
318displays the number of complete and partial input and output blocks,
319truncated input records and odd-length byte-swapping blocks to the
320standard error output.
321A partial input block is one where less than the input block size
322was read.
323A partial output block is one where less than the output block size
324was written.
325Partial output blocks to tape devices are considered fatal errors.
326Otherwise, the rest of the block will be written.
327Partial output blocks to character devices will produce a warning message.
328A truncated input block is one where a variable length record oriented
329conversion value was specified and the input line was too long to
330fit in the conversion record or was not newline terminated.
331.Pp
332Normally, data resulting from input or conversion or both are aggregated
333into output blocks of the specified size.
334After the end of input is reached, any remaining output is written as
335a block.
336This means that the final output block may be shorter than the output
337block size.
338.Pp
339If
340.Nm
341receives a
342.Dv SIGINFO
343signal
344(see the
345.Ic status
346argument for
347.Xr stty 1 ) ,
348the current input and output block counts will
349be written to the standard error output
350in the same format as the standard completion message.
351If
352.Nm
353receives a
354.Dv SIGINT
355signal, the current input and output block counts will
356be written to the standard error output
357in the same format as the standard completion message and
358.Nm
359will exit.
360.Sh EXIT STATUS
361The
362.Nm
363utility exits 0 on success and \*[Gt]0 if an error occurred.
364.Sh SEE ALSO
365.Xr cp 1 ,
366.Xr mt 1 ,
367.Xr tr 1
368.Sh STANDARDS
369The
370.Nm
371utility is expected to be a superset of the
372.St -p1003.2
373standard.
374The
375.Cm files
376operand and the
377.Cm ascii ,
378.Cm ebcdic ,
379.Cm ibm ,
380.Cm oldascii ,
381.Cm oldebcdic
382and
383.Cm oldibm
384values are extensions to the
385.Tn POSIX
386standard.
387