xref: /freebsd/bin/dd/dd.1 (revision 2546665afcaf0d53dc2c7058fee96354b3680f5a)
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31.\"     @(#)dd.1	8.2 (Berkeley) 1/13/94
32.\" $FreeBSD$
33.\"
34.Dd March 5, 2004
35.Dt DD 1
36.Os
37.Sh NAME
38.Nm dd
39.Nd convert and copy a file
40.Sh SYNOPSIS
41.Nm
42.Op Ar operands ...
43.Sh DESCRIPTION
44The
45.Nm
46utility copies the standard input to the standard output.
47Input data is read and written in 512-byte blocks.
48If input reads are short, input from multiple reads are aggregated
49to form the output block.
50When finished,
51.Nm
52displays the number of complete and partial input and output blocks
53and truncated input records to the standard error output.
54.Pp
55The following operands are available:
56.Bl -tag -width ".Cm of Ns = Ns Ar file"
57.It Cm bs Ns = Ns Ar n
58Set both input and output block size to
59.Ar n
60bytes, superseding the
61.Cm ibs
62and
63.Cm obs
64operands.
65If no conversion values other than
66.Cm noerror ,
67.Cm notrunc
68or
69.Cm sync
70are specified, then each input block is copied to the output as a
71single block without any aggregation of short blocks.
72.It Cm cbs Ns = Ns Ar n
73Set the conversion record size to
74.Ar n
75bytes.
76The conversion record size is required by the record oriented conversion
77values.
78.It Cm count Ns = Ns Ar n
79Copy only
80.Ar n
81input blocks.
82.It Cm files Ns = Ns Ar n
83Copy
84.Ar n
85input files before terminating.
86This operand is only applicable when the input device is a tape.
87.It Cm ibs Ns = Ns Ar n
88Set the input block size to
89.Ar n
90bytes instead of the default 512.
91.It Cm if Ns = Ns Ar file
92Read input from
93.Ar file
94instead of the standard input.
95.It Cm iseek Ns = Ns Ar n
96Seek on the input file
97.Ar n
98blocks.
99This is synonymous with
100.Cm skip Ns = Ns Ar n .
101.It Cm obs Ns = Ns Ar n
102Set the output block size to
103.Ar n
104bytes instead of the default 512.
105.It Cm of Ns = Ns Ar file
106Write output to
107.Ar file
108instead of the standard output.
109Any regular output file is truncated unless the
110.Cm notrunc
111conversion value is specified.
112If an initial portion of the output file is seeked past (see the
113.Cm oseek
114operand),
115the output file is truncated at that point.
116.It Cm oseek Ns = Ns Ar n
117Seek on the output file
118.Ar n
119blocks.
120This is synonymous with
121.Cm seek Ns = Ns Ar n .
122.It Cm seek Ns = Ns Ar n
123Seek
124.Ar n
125blocks from the beginning of the output before copying.
126On non-tape devices, an
127.Xr lseek 2
128operation is used.
129Otherwise, existing blocks are read and the data discarded.
130If the user does not have read permission for the tape, it is positioned
131using the tape
132.Xr ioctl 2
133function calls.
134If the seek operation is past the end of file, space from the current
135end of file to the specified offset is filled with blocks of
136.Dv NUL
137bytes.
138.It Cm skip Ns = Ns Ar n
139Skip
140.Ar n
141blocks from the beginning of the input before copying.
142On input which supports seeks, an
143.Xr lseek 2
144operation is used.
145Otherwise, input data is read and discarded.
146For pipes, the correct number of bytes is read.
147For all other devices, the correct number of blocks is read without
148distinguishing between a partial or complete block being read.
149.It Cm conv Ns = Ns Ar value Ns Op , Ns Ar value ...
150Where
151.Cm value
152is one of the symbols from the following list.
153.Bl -tag -width ".Cm unblock"
154.It Cm ascii , oldascii
155The same as the
156.Cm unblock
157value except that characters are translated from
158.Tn EBCDIC
159to
160.Tn ASCII
161before the
162records are converted.
163(These values imply
164.Cm unblock
165if the operand
166.Cm cbs
167is also specified.)
168There are two conversion maps for
169.Tn ASCII .
170The value
171.Cm ascii
172specifies the recommended one which is compatible with
173.At V .
174The value
175.Cm oldascii
176specifies the one used in historic
177.At
178and
179.No pre- Ns Bx 4.3 reno
180systems.
181.It Cm block
182Treats the input as a sequence of newline or end-of-file terminated variable
183length records independent of input and output block boundaries.
184Any trailing newline character is discarded.
185Each input record is converted to a fixed length output record where the
186length is specified by the
187.Cm cbs
188operand.
189Input records shorter than the conversion record size are padded with spaces.
190Input records longer than the conversion record size are truncated.
191The number of truncated input records, if any, are reported to the standard
192error output at the completion of the copy.
193.It Cm ebcdic , ibm , oldebcdic , oldibm
194The same as the
195.Cm block
196value except that characters are translated from
197.Tn ASCII
198to
199.Tn EBCDIC
200after the
201records are converted.
202(These values imply
203.Cm block
204if the operand
205.Cm cbs
206is also specified.)
207There are four conversion maps for
208.Tn EBCDIC .
209The value
210.Cm ebcdic
211specifies the recommended one which is compatible with
212.At V .
213The value
214.Cm ibm
215is a slightly different mapping, which is compatible with the
216.At V
217.Cm ibm
218value.
219The values
220.Cm oldebcdic
221and
222.Cm oldibm
223are maps used in historic
224.At
225and
226.No pre- Ns Bx 4.3 reno
227systems.
228.It Cm lcase
229Transform uppercase characters into lowercase characters.
230.It Cm pareven , parnone , parodd , parset
231Output data with the specified parity.
232The parity bit on input is stripped unless
233.Tn EBCDIC
234to
235.Tn ASCII
236conversions is also specified.
237.It Cm noerror
238Do not stop processing on an input error.
239When an input error occurs, a diagnostic message followed by the current
240input and output block counts will be written to the standard error output
241in the same format as the standard completion message.
242If the
243.Cm sync
244conversion is also specified, any missing input data will be replaced
245with
246.Dv NUL
247bytes (or with spaces if a block oriented conversion value was
248specified) and processed as a normal input buffer.
249If the
250.Cm sync
251conversion is not specified, the input block is omitted from the output.
252On input files which are not tapes or pipes, the file offset
253will be positioned past the block in which the error occurred using
254.Xr lseek 2 .
255.It Cm notrunc
256Do not truncate the output file.
257This will preserve any blocks in the output file not explicitly written
258by
259.Nm .
260The
261.Cm notrunc
262value is not supported for tapes.
263.It Cm osync
264Pad the final output block to the full output block size.
265If the input file is not a multiple of the output block size
266after conversion, this conversion forces the final output block
267to be the same size as preceding blocks for use on devices that require
268regularly sized blocks to be written.
269This option is incompatible with use of the
270.Cm bs Ns = Ns Ar n
271block size specification.
272.It Cm sparse
273If one or more output blocks would consist solely of
274.Dv NUL
275bytes, try to seek the output file by the required space instead of
276filling them with
277.Dv NUL Ns s ,
278resulting in a sparse file.
279.It Cm swab
280Swap every pair of input bytes.
281If an input buffer has an odd number of bytes, the last byte will be
282ignored during swapping.
283.It Cm sync
284Pad every input block to the input buffer size.
285Spaces are used for pad bytes if a block oriented conversion value is
286specified, otherwise
287.Dv NUL
288bytes are used.
289.It Cm ucase
290Transform lowercase characters into uppercase characters.
291.It Cm unblock
292Treats the input as a sequence of fixed length records independent of input
293and output block boundaries.
294The length of the input records is specified by the
295.Cm cbs
296operand.
297Any trailing space characters are discarded and a newline character is
298appended.
299.El
300.El
301.Pp
302Where sizes are specified, a decimal, octal, or hexadecimal number of
303bytes is expected.
304If the number ends with a
305.Dq Li b ,
306.Dq Li k ,
307.Dq Li m ,
308.Dq Li g ,
309or
310.Dq Li w ,
311the
312number is multiplied by 512, 1024 (1K), 1048576 (1M), 1073741824 (1G)
313or the number of bytes in an integer, respectively.
314Two or more numbers may be separated by an
315.Dq Li x
316to indicate a product.
317.Pp
318When finished,
319.Nm
320displays the number of complete and partial input and output blocks,
321truncated input records and odd-length byte-swapping blocks to the
322standard error output.
323A partial input block is one where less than the input block size
324was read.
325A partial output block is one where less than the output block size
326was written.
327Partial output blocks to tape devices are considered fatal errors.
328Otherwise, the rest of the block will be written.
329Partial output blocks to character devices will produce a warning message.
330A truncated input block is one where a variable length record oriented
331conversion value was specified and the input line was too long to
332fit in the conversion record or was not newline terminated.
333.Pp
334Normally, data resulting from input or conversion or both are aggregated
335into output blocks of the specified size.
336After the end of input is reached, any remaining output is written as
337a block.
338This means that the final output block may be shorter than the output
339block size.
340.Pp
341If
342.Nm
343receives a
344.Dv SIGINFO
345(see the
346.Cm status
347argument for
348.Xr stty 1 )
349signal, the current input and output block counts will
350be written to the standard error output
351in the same format as the standard completion message.
352If
353.Nm
354receives a
355.Dv SIGINT
356signal, the current input and output block counts will
357be written to the standard error output
358in the same format as the standard completion message and
359.Nm
360will exit.
361.Sh EXAMPLES
362Check that a disk drive contains no bad blocks:
363.Pp
364.Dl "dd if=/dev/ad0 of=/dev/null bs=1m"
365.Pp
366Do a refresh of a disk drive, in order to prevent presently
367recoverable read errors from progressing into unrecoverable read errors:
368.Pp
369.Dl "dd if=/dev/ad0 of=/dev/ad0 bs=1m"
370.Pp
371Remove parity bit from a file:
372.Pp
373.Dl "dd if=file conv=parnone of=file.txt"
374.Pp
375Check for (even) parity errors on a file:
376.Pp
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