xref: /freebsd/bin/dd/dd.1 (revision 6ab38b8e25f31df8140b99c09160d0207f912ef3)
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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 1, 2013
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 conv Ns = Ns Ar value Ns Op , Ns Ar value ...
160Where
161.Cm value
162is one of the symbols from the following list.
163.Bl -tag -width ".Cm unblock"
164.It Cm ascii , oldascii
165The same as the
166.Cm unblock
167value except that characters are translated from
168.Tn EBCDIC
169to
170.Tn ASCII
171before the
172records are converted.
173(These values imply
174.Cm unblock
175if the operand
176.Cm cbs
177is also specified.)
178There are two conversion maps for
179.Tn ASCII .
180The value
181.Cm ascii
182specifies the recommended one which is compatible with
183.At V .
184The value
185.Cm oldascii
186specifies the one used in historic
187.At
188and
189.No pre- Ns Bx 4.3 reno
190systems.
191.It Cm block
192Treats the input as a sequence of newline or end-of-file terminated variable
193length records independent of input and output block boundaries.
194Any trailing newline character is discarded.
195Each input record is converted to a fixed length output record where the
196length is specified by the
197.Cm cbs
198operand.
199Input records shorter than the conversion record size are padded with spaces.
200Input records longer than the conversion record size are truncated.
201The number of truncated input records, if any, are reported to the standard
202error output at the completion of the copy.
203.It Cm ebcdic , ibm , oldebcdic , oldibm
204The same as the
205.Cm block
206value except that characters are translated from
207.Tn ASCII
208to
209.Tn EBCDIC
210after the
211records are converted.
212(These values imply
213.Cm block
214if the operand
215.Cm cbs
216is also specified.)
217There are four conversion maps for
218.Tn EBCDIC .
219The value
220.Cm ebcdic
221specifies the recommended one which is compatible with
222.At V .
223The value
224.Cm ibm
225is a slightly different mapping, which is compatible with the
226.At V
227.Cm ibm
228value.
229The values
230.Cm oldebcdic
231and
232.Cm oldibm
233are maps used in historic
234.At
235and
236.No pre- Ns Bx 4.3 reno
237systems.
238.It Cm lcase
239Transform uppercase characters into lowercase characters.
240.It Cm pareven , parnone , parodd , parset
241Output data with the specified parity.
242The parity bit on input is stripped unless
243.Tn EBCDIC
244to
245.Tn ASCII
246conversions is also specified.
247.It Cm noerror
248Do not stop processing on an input error.
249When an input error occurs, a diagnostic message followed by the current
250input and output block counts will be written to the standard error output
251in the same format as the standard completion message.
252If the
253.Cm sync
254conversion is also specified, any missing input data will be replaced
255with
256.Dv NUL
257bytes (or with spaces if a block oriented conversion value was
258specified) and processed as a normal input buffer.
259If the
260.Cm fillchar
261option is specified, the fill character provided on the command line
262will override
263the automatic selection of the fill character.
264If the
265.Cm sync
266conversion is not specified, the input block is omitted from the output.
267On input files which are not tapes or pipes, the file offset
268will be positioned past the block in which the error occurred using
269.Xr lseek 2 .
270.It Cm notrunc
271Do not truncate the output file.
272This will preserve any blocks in the output file not explicitly written
273by
274.Nm .
275The
276.Cm notrunc
277value is not supported for tapes.
278.It Cm osync
279Pad the final output block to the full output block size.
280If the input file is not a multiple of the output block size
281after conversion, this conversion forces the final output block
282to be the same size as preceding blocks for use on devices that require
283regularly sized blocks to be written.
284This option is incompatible with use of the
285.Cm bs Ns = Ns Ar n
286block size specification.
287.It Cm sparse
288If one or more output blocks would consist solely of
289.Dv NUL
290bytes, try to seek the output file by the required space instead of
291filling them with
292.Dv NUL Ns s ,
293resulting in a sparse file.
294.It Cm swab
295Swap every pair of input bytes.
296If an input buffer has an odd number of bytes, the last byte will be
297ignored during swapping.
298.It Cm sync
299Pad every input block to the input buffer size.
300Spaces are used for pad bytes if a block oriented conversion value is
301specified, otherwise
302.Dv NUL
303bytes are used.
304.It Cm ucase
305Transform lowercase characters into uppercase characters.
306.It Cm unblock
307Treats the input as a sequence of fixed length records independent of input
308and output block boundaries.
309The length of the input records is specified by the
310.Cm cbs
311operand.
312Any trailing space characters are discarded and a newline character is
313appended.
314.El
315.El
316.Pp
317Where sizes are specified, a decimal, octal, or hexadecimal number of
318bytes is expected.
319If the number ends with a
320.Dq Li b ,
321.Dq Li k ,
322.Dq Li m ,
323.Dq Li g ,
324or
325.Dq Li w ,
326the
327number is multiplied by 512, 1024 (1K), 1048576 (1M), 1073741824 (1G)
328or the number of bytes in an integer, respectively.
329Two or more numbers may be separated by an
330.Dq Li x
331to indicate a product.
332.Pp
333When finished,
334.Nm
335displays the number of complete and partial input and output blocks,
336truncated input records and odd-length byte-swapping blocks to the
337standard error output.
338A partial input block is one where less than the input block size
339was read.
340A partial output block is one where less than the output block size
341was written.
342Partial output blocks to tape devices are considered fatal errors.
343Otherwise, the rest of the block will be written.
344Partial output blocks to character devices will produce a warning message.
345A truncated input block is one where a variable length record oriented
346conversion value was specified and the input line was too long to
347fit in the conversion record or was not newline terminated.
348.Pp
349Normally, data resulting from input or conversion or both are aggregated
350into output blocks of the specified size.
351After the end of input is reached, any remaining output is written as
352a block.
353This means that the final output block may be shorter than the output
354block size.
355.Pp
356If
357.Nm
358receives a
359.Dv SIGINFO
360(see the
361.Cm status
362argument for
363.Xr stty 1 )
364signal, the current input and output block counts will
365be written to the standard error output
366in the same format as the standard completion message.
367If
368.Nm
369receives a
370.Dv SIGINT
371signal, the current input and output block counts will
372be written to the standard error output
373in the same format as the standard completion message and
374.Nm
375will exit.
376.Sh EXIT STATUS
377.Ex -std
378.Sh EXAMPLES
379Check that a disk drive contains no bad blocks:
380.Pp
381.Dl "dd if=/dev/ada0 of=/dev/null bs=1m"
382.Pp
383Do a refresh of a disk drive, in order to prevent presently
384recoverable read errors from progressing into unrecoverable read errors:
385.Pp
386.Dl "dd if=/dev/ada0 of=/dev/ada0 bs=1m"
387.Pp
388Remove parity bit from a file:
389.Pp
390.Dl "dd if=file conv=parnone of=file.txt"
391.Pp
392Check for (even) parity errors on a file:
393.Pp
394.Dl "dd if=file conv=pareven | cmp -x - file"
395.Pp
396To create an image of a Mode-1 CD-ROM, which is a commonly used format
397for data CD-ROM disks, use a block size of 2048 bytes:
398.Pp
399.Dl "dd if=/dev/acd0 of=filename.iso bs=2048"
400.Sh SEE ALSO
401.Xr cp 1 ,
402.Xr mt 1 ,
403.Xr tr 1 ,
404.Xr geom 4
405.Sh STANDARDS
406The
407.Nm
408utility is expected to be a superset of the
409.St -p1003.2
410standard.
411The
412.Cm files
413operand and the
414.Cm ascii ,
415.Cm ebcdic ,
416.Cm ibm ,
417.Cm oldascii ,
418.Cm oldebcdic
419and
420.Cm oldibm
421values are extensions to the
422.Tn POSIX
423standard.
424.Sh BUGS
425Protection mechanisms in the
426.Xr geom 4
427subsystem might prevent the super-user from writing blocks to a disk.
428Instructions for temporarily disabling these protection mechanisms can be
429found in the
430.Xr geom 4
431manpage.
432