xref: /freebsd/bin/dd/dd.1 (revision 193d9e768ba63fcfb187cfd17f461f7d41345048)
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5.\" This code is derived from software contributed to Berkeley by
6.\" Keith Muller of the University of California, San Diego.
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32.\"     @(#)dd.1	8.2 (Berkeley) 1/13/94
33.\" $FreeBSD$
34.\"
35.Dd October 5, 2016
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 Ar 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 ".Cm of Ns = Ns Ar file"
58.It Cm bs Ns = Ns Ar n
59Set both input and output block size to
60.Ar n
61bytes, superseding the
62.Cm ibs
63and
64.Cm obs
65operands.
66If no conversion values other than
67.Cm noerror ,
68.Cm notrunc
69or
70.Cm sync
71are specified, then each input block is copied to the output as a
72single block without any aggregation of short blocks.
73.It Cm cbs Ns = Ns Ar n
74Set the conversion record size to
75.Ar n
76bytes.
77The conversion record size is required by the record oriented conversion
78values.
79.It Cm count Ns = Ns Ar n
80Copy only
81.Ar n
82input blocks.
83.It Cm files Ns = Ns Ar n
84Copy
85.Ar n
86input files before terminating.
87This operand is only applicable when the input device is a tape.
88.It Cm fillchar Ns = Ns Ar c
89When padding a block in conversion mode or due to use of
90.Cm noerror
91and
92.Cm sync
93modes, fill with the specified
94.Tn ASCII
95character, rather than using a space or
96.Dv NUL .
97.It Cm ibs Ns = Ns Ar n
98Set the input block size to
99.Ar n
100bytes instead of the default 512.
101.It Cm if Ns = Ns Ar file
102Read input from
103.Ar file
104instead of the standard input.
105.It Cm iseek Ns = Ns Ar n
106Seek on the input file
107.Ar n
108blocks.
109This is synonymous with
110.Cm skip Ns = Ns Ar n .
111.It Cm obs Ns = Ns Ar n
112Set the output block size to
113.Ar n
114bytes instead of the default 512.
115.It Cm of Ns = Ns Ar file
116Write output to
117.Ar file
118instead of the standard output.
119Any regular output file is truncated unless the
120.Cm notrunc
121conversion value is specified.
122If an initial portion of the output file is seeked past (see the
123.Cm oseek
124operand),
125the output file is truncated at that point.
126.It Cm oseek Ns = Ns Ar n
127Seek on the output file
128.Ar n
129blocks.
130This is synonymous with
131.Cm seek Ns = Ns Ar n .
132.It Cm seek Ns = Ns Ar n
133Seek
134.Ar n
135blocks from the beginning of the output before copying.
136On non-tape devices, an
137.Xr lseek 2
138operation is used.
139Otherwise, existing blocks are read and the data discarded.
140If the user does not have read permission for the tape, it is positioned
141using the tape
142.Xr ioctl 2
143function calls.
144If the seek operation is past the end of file, space from the current
145end of file to the specified offset is filled with blocks of
146.Dv NUL
147bytes.
148.It Cm skip Ns = Ns Ar n
149Skip
150.Ar n
151blocks from the beginning of the input before copying.
152On input which supports seeks, an
153.Xr lseek 2
154operation is used.
155Otherwise, input data is read and discarded.
156For pipes, the correct number of bytes is read.
157For all other devices, the correct number of blocks is read without
158distinguishing between a partial or complete block being read.
159.It Cm speed Ns = Ns Ar n
160Limit the copying speed to
161.Ar n
162bytes per second.
163.It Cm status Ns = Ns Ar value
164Where
165.Cm value
166is one of the symbols from the following list.
167.Bl -tag -width ".Cm noxfer"
168.It Cm noxfer
169Do not print the transfer statistics as the last line of status output.
170.It Cm none
171Do not print the status output.
172Error messages are shown; informational messages are not.
173.El
174.It Cm conv Ns = Ns Ar value Ns Op , Ns Ar value ...
175Where
176.Cm value
177is one of the symbols from the following list.
178.Bl -tag -width ".Cm unblock"
179.It Cm ascii , oldascii
180The same as the
181.Cm unblock
182value except that characters are translated from
183.Tn EBCDIC
184to
185.Tn ASCII
186before the
187records are converted.
188(These values imply
189.Cm unblock
190if the operand
191.Cm cbs
192is also specified.)
193There are two conversion maps for
194.Tn ASCII .
195The value
196.Cm ascii
197specifies the recommended one which is compatible with
198.At V .
199The value
200.Cm oldascii
201specifies the one used in historic
202.At
203and
204.No pre- Ns Bx 4.3 reno
205systems.
206.It Cm block
207Treats the input as a sequence of newline or end-of-file terminated variable
208length records independent of input and output block boundaries.
209Any trailing newline character is discarded.
210Each input record is converted to a fixed length output record where the
211length is specified by the
212.Cm cbs
213operand.
214Input records shorter than the conversion record size are padded with spaces.
215Input records longer than the conversion record size are truncated.
216The number of truncated input records, if any, are reported to the standard
217error output at the completion of the copy.
218.It Cm ebcdic , ibm , oldebcdic , oldibm
219The same as the
220.Cm block
221value except that characters are translated from
222.Tn ASCII
223to
224.Tn EBCDIC
225after the
226records are converted.
227(These values imply
228.Cm block
229if the operand
230.Cm cbs
231is also specified.)
232There are four conversion maps for
233.Tn EBCDIC .
234The value
235.Cm ebcdic
236specifies the recommended one which is compatible with
237.At V .
238The value
239.Cm ibm
240is a slightly different mapping, which is compatible with the
241.At V
242.Cm ibm
243value.
244The values
245.Cm oldebcdic
246and
247.Cm oldibm
248are maps used in historic
249.At
250and
251.No pre- Ns Bx 4.3 reno
252systems.
253.It Cm lcase
254Transform uppercase characters into lowercase characters.
255.It Cm pareven , parnone , parodd , parset
256Output data with the specified parity.
257The parity bit on input is stripped unless
258.Tn EBCDIC
259to
260.Tn ASCII
261conversions is also specified.
262.It Cm noerror
263Do not stop processing on an input error.
264When an input error occurs, a diagnostic message followed by the current
265input and output block counts will be written to the standard error output
266in the same format as the standard completion message.
267If the
268.Cm sync
269conversion is also specified, any missing input data will be replaced
270with
271.Dv NUL
272bytes (or with spaces if a block oriented conversion value was
273specified) and processed as a normal input buffer.
274If the
275.Cm fillchar
276option is specified, the fill character provided on the command line
277will override
278the automatic selection of the fill character.
279If the
280.Cm sync
281conversion is not specified, the input block is omitted from the output.
282On input files which are not tapes or pipes, the file offset
283will be positioned past the block in which the error occurred using
284.Xr lseek 2 .
285.It Cm notrunc
286Do not truncate the output file.
287This will preserve any blocks in the output file not explicitly written
288by
289.Nm .
290The
291.Cm notrunc
292value is not supported for tapes.
293.It Cm osync
294Pad the final output block to the full output block size.
295If the input file is not a multiple of the output block size
296after conversion, this conversion forces the final output block
297to be the same size as preceding blocks for use on devices that require
298regularly sized blocks to be written.
299This option is incompatible with use of the
300.Cm bs Ns = Ns Ar n
301block size specification.
302.It Cm sparse
303If one or more output blocks would consist solely of
304.Dv NUL
305bytes, try to seek the output file by the required space instead of
306filling them with
307.Dv NUL Ns s ,
308resulting in a sparse file.
309.It Cm swab
310Swap every pair of input bytes.
311If an input buffer has an odd number of bytes, the last byte will be
312ignored during swapping.
313.It Cm sync
314Pad every input block to the input buffer size.
315Spaces are used for pad bytes if a block oriented conversion value is
316specified, otherwise
317.Dv NUL
318bytes are used.
319.It Cm ucase
320Transform lowercase characters into uppercase characters.
321.It Cm unblock
322Treats the input as a sequence of fixed length records independent of input
323and output block boundaries.
324The length of the input records is specified by the
325.Cm cbs
326operand.
327Any trailing space characters are discarded and a newline character is
328appended.
329.El
330.El
331.Pp
332Where sizes or speed are specified, a decimal, octal, or hexadecimal number of
333bytes is expected.
334If the number ends with a
335.Dq Li b ,
336.Dq Li k ,
337.Dq Li m ,
338.Dq Li g ,
339.Dq Li t ,
340.Dq Li p ,
341or
342.Dq Li w ,
343the
344number is multiplied by 512, 1024 (1K), 1048576 (1M), 1073741824 (1G),
3451099511627776 (1T), 1125899906842624 (1P)
346or the number of bytes in an integer, respectively.
347Two or more numbers may be separated by an
348.Dq Li x
349to indicate a product.
350.Pp
351When finished,
352.Nm
353displays the number of complete and partial input and output blocks,
354truncated input records and odd-length byte-swapping blocks to the
355standard error output.
356A partial input block is one where less than the input block size
357was read.
358A partial output block is one where less than the output block size
359was written.
360Partial output blocks to tape devices are considered fatal errors.
361Otherwise, the rest of the block will be written.
362Partial output blocks to character devices will produce a warning message.
363A truncated input block is one where a variable length record oriented
364conversion value was specified and the input line was too long to
365fit in the conversion record or was not newline terminated.
366.Pp
367Normally, data resulting from input or conversion or both are aggregated
368into output blocks of the specified size.
369After the end of input is reached, any remaining output is written as
370a block.
371This means that the final output block may be shorter than the output
372block size.
373.Pp
374If
375.Nm
376receives a
377.Dv SIGINFO
378(see the
379.Cm status
380argument for
381.Xr stty 1 )
382signal, the current input and output block counts will
383be written to the standard error output
384in the same format as the standard completion message.
385If
386.Nm
387receives a
388.Dv SIGINT
389signal, the current input and output block counts will
390be written to the standard error output
391in the same format as the standard completion message and
392.Nm
393will exit.
394.Sh EXIT STATUS
395.Ex -std
396.Sh EXAMPLES
397Check that a disk drive contains no bad blocks:
398.Pp
399.Dl "dd if=/dev/ada0 of=/dev/null bs=1m"
400.Pp
401Do a refresh of a disk drive, in order to prevent presently
402recoverable read errors from progressing into unrecoverable read errors:
403.Pp
404.Dl "dd if=/dev/ada0 of=/dev/ada0 bs=1m"
405.Pp
406Remove parity bit from a file:
407.Pp
408.Dl "dd if=file conv=parnone of=file.txt"
409.Pp
410Check for (even) parity errors on a file:
411.Pp
412.Dl "dd if=file conv=pareven | cmp -x - file"
413.Pp
414To create an image of a Mode-1 CD-ROM, which is a commonly used format
415for data CD-ROM disks, use a block size of 2048 bytes:
416.Pp
417.Dl "dd if=/dev/cd0 of=filename.iso bs=2048"
418.Pp
419Write a filesystem image to a memory stick, padding the end with zeros,
420if necessary, to a 1MiB boundary:
421.Pp
422.Dl "dd if=memstick.img of=/dev/da0 bs=1m conv=noerror,sync"
423.Sh SEE ALSO
424.Xr cp 1 ,
425.Xr mt 1 ,
426.Xr recoverdisk 1 ,
427.Xr tr 1 ,
428.Xr geom 4
429.Sh STANDARDS
430The
431.Nm
432utility is expected to be a superset of the
433.St -p1003.2
434standard.
435The
436.Cm files
437and
438.Cm status
439operands and the
440.Cm ascii ,
441.Cm ebcdic ,
442.Cm ibm ,
443.Cm oldascii ,
444.Cm oldebcdic
445and
446.Cm oldibm
447values are extensions to the
448.Tn POSIX
449standard.
450.Sh HISTORY
451A
452.Nm
453command appeared in
454.At v5 .
455.Sh BUGS
456Protection mechanisms in the
457.Xr geom 4
458subsystem might prevent the super-user from writing blocks to a disk.
459Instructions for temporarily disabling these protection mechanisms can be
460found in the
461.Xr geom 4
462manpage.
463