xref: /freebsd/bin/dd/dd.1 (revision 0f8f86b71f022b803e99151c19db81b280f245dc)
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4.\" This code is derived from software contributed to Berkeley by
5.\" Keith Muller of the University of California, San Diego.
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35.\"     @(#)dd.1	8.2 (Berkeley) 1/13/94
36.\" $FreeBSD$
37.\"
38.Dd January 13, 1994
39.Dt DD 1
40.Os
41.Sh NAME
42.Nm dd
43.Nd convert and copy a file
44.Sh SYNOPSIS
45.Nm
46.Op Ar operands ...
47.Sh DESCRIPTION
48The
49.Nm
50utility copies the standard input to the standard output.
51Input data is read and written in 512-byte blocks.
52If input reads are short, input from multiple reads are aggregated
53to form the output block.
54When finished,
55.Nm
56displays the number of complete and partial input and output blocks
57and truncated input records to the standard error output.
58.Pp
59The following operands are available:
60.Bl -tag -width ".Cm of Ns = Ns Ar file"
61.It Cm bs Ns = Ns Ar n
62Set both input and output block size to
63.Ar n
64bytes, superseding the
65.Cm ibs
66and
67.Cm obs
68operands.
69If no conversion values other than
70.Cm noerror ,
71.Cm notrunc
72or
73.Cm sync
74are specified, then each input block is copied to the output as a
75single block without any aggregation of short blocks.
76.It Cm cbs Ns = Ns Ar n
77Set the conversion record size to
78.Ar n
79bytes.
80The conversion record size is required by the record oriented conversion
81values.
82.It Cm count Ns = Ns Ar n
83Copy only
84.Ar n
85input blocks.
86.It Cm files Ns = Ns Ar n
87Copy
88.Ar n
89input files before terminating.
90This operand is only applicable when the input device is a tape.
91.It Cm ibs Ns = Ns Ar n
92Set the input block size to
93.Ar n
94bytes instead of the default 512.
95.It Cm if Ns = Ns Ar file
96Read input from
97.Ar file
98instead of the standard input.
99.It Cm iseek Ns = Ns Ar n
100Seek on the input file
101.Ar n
102blocks.
103This is synonymous with
104.Cm skip Ns = Ns Ar n .
105.It Cm obs Ns = Ns Ar n
106Set the output block size to
107.Ar n
108bytes instead of the default 512.
109.It Cm of Ns = Ns Ar file
110Write output to
111.Ar file
112instead of the standard output.
113Any regular output file is truncated unless the
114.Cm notrunc
115conversion value is specified.
116If an initial portion of the output file is seeked past (see the
117.Cm oseek
118operand),
119the output file is truncated at that point.
120.It Cm oseek Ns = Ns Ar n
121Seek on the output file
122.Ar n
123blocks.
124This is synonymous with
125.Cm seek Ns = Ns Ar n .
126.It Cm seek Ns = Ns Ar n
127Seek
128.Ar n
129blocks from the beginning of the output before copying.
130On non-tape devices, an
131.Xr lseek 2
132operation is used.
133Otherwise, existing blocks are read and the data discarded.
134If the user does not have read permission for the tape, it is positioned
135using the tape
136.Xr ioctl 2
137function calls.
138If the seek operation is past the end of file, space from the current
139end of file to the specified offset is filled with blocks of
140.Dv NUL
141bytes.
142.It Cm skip Ns = Ns Ar n
143Skip
144.Ar n
145blocks from the beginning of the input before copying.
146On input which supports seeks, an
147.Xr lseek 2
148operation is used.
149Otherwise, input data is read and discarded.
150For pipes, the correct number of bytes is read.
151For all other devices, the correct number of blocks is read without
152distinguishing between a partial or complete block being read.
153.It Cm conv Ns = Ns Ar value Ns Op , Ns Ar value ...
154Where
155.Cm value
156is one of the symbols from the following list.
157.Bl -tag -width ".Cm unblock"
158.It Cm ascii , oldascii
159The same as the
160.Cm unblock
161value except that characters are translated from
162.Tn EBCDIC
163to
164.Tn ASCII
165before the
166records are converted.
167(These values imply
168.Cm unblock
169if the operand
170.Cm cbs
171is also specified.)
172There are two conversion maps for
173.Tn ASCII .
174The value
175.Cm ascii
176specifies the recommended one which is compatible with
177.At V .
178The value
179.Cm oldascii
180specifies the one used in historic
181.At
182and
183.No pre- Ns Bx 4.3 reno
184systems.
185.It Cm block
186Treats the input as a sequence of newline or end-of-file terminated variable
187length records independent of input and output block boundaries.
188Any trailing newline character is discarded.
189Each input record is converted to a fixed length output record where the
190length is specified by the
191.Cm cbs
192operand.
193Input records shorter than the conversion record size are padded with spaces.
194Input records longer than the conversion record size are truncated.
195The number of truncated input records, if any, are reported to the standard
196error output at the completion of the copy.
197.It Cm ebcdic , ibm , oldebcdic , oldibm
198The same as the
199.Cm block
200value except that characters are translated from
201.Tn ASCII
202to
203.Tn EBCDIC
204after the
205records are converted.
206(These values imply
207.Cm block
208if the operand
209.Cm cbs
210is also specified.)
211There are four conversion maps for
212.Tn EBCDIC .
213The value
214.Cm ebcdic
215specifies the recommended one which is compatible with
216.At V .
217The value
218.Cm ibm
219is a slightly different mapping, which is compatible with the
220.At V
221.Cm ibm
222value.
223The values
224.Cm oldebcdic
225and
226.Cm oldibm
227are maps used in historic
228.At
229and
230.No pre- Ns Bx 4.3 reno
231systems.
232.It Cm lcase
233Transform uppercase characters into lowercase characters.
234.It Cm pareven , parnone , parodd , parset
235Output data with the specified parity.
236The parity bit on input is stripped unless
237.Tn EBCDIC
238to
239.Tn ASCII
240conversions is also specified.
241.It Cm noerror
242Do not stop processing on an input error.
243When an input error occurs, a diagnostic message followed by the current
244input and output block counts will be written to the standard error output
245in the same format as the standard completion message.
246If the
247.Cm sync
248conversion is also specified, any missing input data will be replaced
249with
250.Dv NUL
251bytes (or with spaces if a block oriented conversion value was
252specified) and processed as a normal input buffer.
253If the
254.Cm sync
255conversion is not specified, the input block is omitted from the output.
256On input files which are not tapes or pipes, the file offset
257will be positioned past the block in which the error occurred using
258.Xr lseek 2 .
259.It Cm notrunc
260Do not truncate the output file.
261This will preserve any blocks in the output file not explicitly written
262by
263.Nm .
264The
265.Cm notrunc
266value is not supported for tapes.
267.It Cm osync
268Pad the final output block to the full output block size.
269If the input file is not a multiple of the output block size
270after conversion, this conversion forces the final output block
271to be the same size as preceding blocks for use on devices that require
272regularly sized blocks to be written.
273This option is incompatible with use of the
274.Cm bs Ns = Ns Ar n
275block size specification.
276.It Cm sparse
277If one or more output blocks would consist solely of
278.Dv NUL
279bytes, try to seek the output file by the required space instead of
280filling them with
281.Dv NUL Ns s ,
282resulting in a sparse file.
283.It Cm swab
284Swap every pair of input bytes.
285If an input buffer has an odd number of bytes, the last byte will be
286ignored during swapping.
287.It Cm sync
288Pad every input block to the input buffer size.
289Spaces are used for pad bytes if a block oriented conversion value is
290specified, otherwise
291.Dv NUL
292bytes are used.
293.It Cm ucase
294Transform lowercase characters into uppercase characters.
295.It Cm unblock
296Treats the input as a sequence of fixed length records independent of input
297and output block boundaries.
298The length of the input records is specified by the
299.Cm cbs
300operand.
301Any trailing space characters are discarded and a newline character is
302appended.
303.El
304.El
305.Pp
306Where sizes are specified, a decimal, octal, or hexadecimal number of
307bytes is expected.
308If the number ends with a
309.Dq Li b ,
310.Dq Li k ,
311.Dq Li m ,
312.Dq Li g ,
313or
314.Dq Li w ,
315the
316number is multiplied by 512, 1024 (1K), 1048576 (1M), 1073741824 (1G)
317or the number of bytes in an integer, respectively.
318Two or more numbers may be separated by an
319.Dq Li x
320to indicate a product.
321.Pp
322When finished,
323.Nm
324displays the number of complete and partial input and output blocks,
325truncated input records and odd-length byte-swapping blocks to the
326standard error output.
327A partial input block is one where less than the input block size
328was read.
329A partial output block is one where less than the output block size
330was written.
331Partial output blocks to tape devices are considered fatal errors.
332Otherwise, the rest of the block will be written.
333Partial output blocks to character devices will produce a warning message.
334A truncated input block is one where a variable length record oriented
335conversion value was specified and the input line was too long to
336fit in the conversion record or was not newline terminated.
337.Pp
338Normally, data resulting from input or conversion or both are aggregated
339into output blocks of the specified size.
340After the end of input is reached, any remaining output is written as
341a block.
342This means that the final output block may be shorter than the output
343block size.
344.Pp
345If
346.Nm
347receives a
348.Dv SIGINFO
349(see the
350.Cm status
351argument for
352.Xr stty 1 )
353signal, the current input and output block counts will
354be written to the standard error output
355in the same format as the standard completion message.
356If
357.Nm
358receives a
359.Dv SIGINT
360signal, the current input and output block counts will
361be written to the standard error output
362in the same format as the standard completion message and
363.Nm
364will exit.
365.Sh EXAMPLES
366Check that a disk drive contains no bad blocks:
367.Dl dd if=/dev/ad0 of=/dev/null bs=1m
368.Pp
369Do a refresh of a disk drive, in order to prevent presently
370recoverable read errors from progressing into unrecoverable read errors:
371.Dl dd if=/dev/ad0 of=/dev/ad0 bs=1m
372.Pp
373Remove parity bit from a file
374.Dl dd if=file conv=parnone of=file.txt
375.Pp
376Check for (even) parity errors on a file:
377.Dl dd if=file conv=pareven | cmp -x - file
378.Sh DIAGNOSTICS
379.Ex -std
380.Sh SEE ALSO
381.Xr cp 1 ,
382.Xr mt 1 ,
383.Xr tr 1
384.Sh STANDARDS
385The
386.Nm
387utility is expected to be a superset of the
388.St -p1003.2
389standard.
390The
391.Cm files
392operand and the
393.Cm ascii ,
394.Cm ebcdic ,
395.Cm ibm ,
396.Cm oldascii ,
397.Cm oldebcdic
398and
399.Cm oldibm
400values are extensions to the
401.Tn POSIX
402standard.
403