xref: /freebsd/bin/dd/dd.1 (revision 93e779a26c651610ac6e7986d67ecc9ed2cadcbf)
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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 August 28, 2014
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 status Ns = Ns Ar value
160Where
161.Cm value
162is one of the symbols from the following list.
163.Bl -tag -width ".Cm noxfer"
164.It Cm noxfer
165Do not print the transfer statistics as the last line of status output.
166.It Cm none
167Do not print the status output.
168Error messages are shown; informational messages are not.
169.El
170.It Cm conv Ns = Ns Ar value Ns Op , Ns Ar value ...
171Where
172.Cm value
173is one of the symbols from the following list.
174.Bl -tag -width ".Cm unblock"
175.It Cm ascii , oldascii
176The same as the
177.Cm unblock
178value except that characters are translated from
179.Tn EBCDIC
180to
181.Tn ASCII
182before the
183records are converted.
184(These values imply
185.Cm unblock
186if the operand
187.Cm cbs
188is also specified.)
189There are two conversion maps for
190.Tn ASCII .
191The value
192.Cm ascii
193specifies the recommended one which is compatible with
194.At V .
195The value
196.Cm oldascii
197specifies the one used in historic
198.At
199and
200.No pre- Ns Bx 4.3 reno
201systems.
202.It Cm block
203Treats the input as a sequence of newline or end-of-file terminated variable
204length records independent of input and output block boundaries.
205Any trailing newline character is discarded.
206Each input record is converted to a fixed length output record where the
207length is specified by the
208.Cm cbs
209operand.
210Input records shorter than the conversion record size are padded with spaces.
211Input records longer than the conversion record size are truncated.
212The number of truncated input records, if any, are reported to the standard
213error output at the completion of the copy.
214.It Cm ebcdic , ibm , oldebcdic , oldibm
215The same as the
216.Cm block
217value except that characters are translated from
218.Tn ASCII
219to
220.Tn EBCDIC
221after the
222records are converted.
223(These values imply
224.Cm block
225if the operand
226.Cm cbs
227is also specified.)
228There are four conversion maps for
229.Tn EBCDIC .
230The value
231.Cm ebcdic
232specifies the recommended one which is compatible with
233.At V .
234The value
235.Cm ibm
236is a slightly different mapping, which is compatible with the
237.At V
238.Cm ibm
239value.
240The values
241.Cm oldebcdic
242and
243.Cm oldibm
244are maps used in historic
245.At
246and
247.No pre- Ns Bx 4.3 reno
248systems.
249.It Cm lcase
250Transform uppercase characters into lowercase characters.
251.It Cm pareven , parnone , parodd , parset
252Output data with the specified parity.
253The parity bit on input is stripped unless
254.Tn EBCDIC
255to
256.Tn ASCII
257conversions is also specified.
258.It Cm noerror
259Do not stop processing on an input error.
260When an input error occurs, a diagnostic message followed by the current
261input and output block counts will be written to the standard error output
262in the same format as the standard completion message.
263If the
264.Cm sync
265conversion is also specified, any missing input data will be replaced
266with
267.Dv NUL
268bytes (or with spaces if a block oriented conversion value was
269specified) and processed as a normal input buffer.
270If the
271.Cm fillchar
272option is specified, the fill character provided on the command line
273will override
274the automatic selection of the fill character.
275If the
276.Cm sync
277conversion is not specified, the input block is omitted from the output.
278On input files which are not tapes or pipes, the file offset
279will be positioned past the block in which the error occurred using
280.Xr lseek 2 .
281.It Cm notrunc
282Do not truncate the output file.
283This will preserve any blocks in the output file not explicitly written
284by
285.Nm .
286The
287.Cm notrunc
288value is not supported for tapes.
289.It Cm osync
290Pad the final output block to the full output block size.
291If the input file is not a multiple of the output block size
292after conversion, this conversion forces the final output block
293to be the same size as preceding blocks for use on devices that require
294regularly sized blocks to be written.
295This option is incompatible with use of the
296.Cm bs Ns = Ns Ar n
297block size specification.
298.It Cm sparse
299If one or more output blocks would consist solely of
300.Dv NUL
301bytes, try to seek the output file by the required space instead of
302filling them with
303.Dv NUL Ns s ,
304resulting in a sparse file.
305.It Cm swab
306Swap every pair of input bytes.
307If an input buffer has an odd number of bytes, the last byte will be
308ignored during swapping.
309.It Cm sync
310Pad every input block to the input buffer size.
311Spaces are used for pad bytes if a block oriented conversion value is
312specified, otherwise
313.Dv NUL
314bytes are used.
315.It Cm ucase
316Transform lowercase characters into uppercase characters.
317.It Cm unblock
318Treats the input as a sequence of fixed length records independent of input
319and output block boundaries.
320The length of the input records is specified by the
321.Cm cbs
322operand.
323Any trailing space characters are discarded and a newline character is
324appended.
325.El
326.El
327.Pp
328Where sizes are specified, a decimal, octal, or hexadecimal number of
329bytes is expected.
330If the number ends with a
331.Dq Li b ,
332.Dq Li k ,
333.Dq Li m ,
334.Dq Li g ,
335or
336.Dq Li w ,
337the
338number is multiplied by 512, 1024 (1K), 1048576 (1M), 1073741824 (1G)
339or the number of bytes in an integer, respectively.
340Two or more numbers may be separated by an
341.Dq Li x
342to indicate a product.
343.Pp
344When finished,
345.Nm
346displays the number of complete and partial input and output blocks,
347truncated input records and odd-length byte-swapping blocks to the
348standard error output.
349A partial input block is one where less than the input block size
350was read.
351A partial output block is one where less than the output block size
352was written.
353Partial output blocks to tape devices are considered fatal errors.
354Otherwise, the rest of the block will be written.
355Partial output blocks to character devices will produce a warning message.
356A truncated input block is one where a variable length record oriented
357conversion value was specified and the input line was too long to
358fit in the conversion record or was not newline terminated.
359.Pp
360Normally, data resulting from input or conversion or both are aggregated
361into output blocks of the specified size.
362After the end of input is reached, any remaining output is written as
363a block.
364This means that the final output block may be shorter than the output
365block size.
366.Pp
367If
368.Nm
369receives a
370.Dv SIGINFO
371(see the
372.Cm status
373argument for
374.Xr stty 1 )
375signal, the current input and output block counts will
376be written to the standard error output
377in the same format as the standard completion message.
378If
379.Nm
380receives a
381.Dv SIGINT
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 and
385.Nm
386will exit.
387.Sh EXIT STATUS
388.Ex -std
389.Sh EXAMPLES
390Check that a disk drive contains no bad blocks:
391.Pp
392.Dl "dd if=/dev/ada0 of=/dev/null bs=1m"
393.Pp
394Do a refresh of a disk drive, in order to prevent presently
395recoverable read errors from progressing into unrecoverable read errors:
396.Pp
397.Dl "dd if=/dev/ada0 of=/dev/ada0 bs=1m"
398.Pp
399Remove parity bit from a file:
400.Pp
401.Dl "dd if=file conv=parnone of=file.txt"
402.Pp
403Check for (even) parity errors on a file:
404.Pp
405.Dl "dd if=file conv=pareven | cmp -x - file"
406.Pp
407To create an image of a Mode-1 CD-ROM, which is a commonly used format
408for data CD-ROM disks, use a block size of 2048 bytes:
409.Pp
410.Dl "dd if=/dev/acd0 of=filename.iso bs=2048"
411.Pp
412Write a filesystem image to a memory stick, padding the end with zeros,
413if necessary, to a 1MiB boundary:
414.Pp
415.Dl "dd if=memstick.img of=/dev/da0 bs=1m conv=noerror,sync"
416.Sh SEE ALSO
417.Xr cp 1 ,
418.Xr mt 1 ,
419.Xr recoverdisk 1 ,
420.Xr tr 1 ,
421.Xr geom 4
422.Sh STANDARDS
423The
424.Nm
425utility is expected to be a superset of the
426.St -p1003.2
427standard.
428The
429.Cm files
430and
431.Cm status
432operands and the
433.Cm ascii ,
434.Cm ebcdic ,
435.Cm ibm ,
436.Cm oldascii ,
437.Cm oldebcdic
438and
439.Cm oldibm
440values are extensions to the
441.Tn POSIX
442standard.
443.Sh BUGS
444Protection mechanisms in the
445.Xr geom 4
446subsystem might prevent the super-user from writing blocks to a disk.
447Instructions for temporarily disabling these protection mechanisms can be
448found in the
449.Xr geom 4
450manpage.
451