DD(1) General Commands Manual DD(1)

dd - Copy, and optionally convert, a file system resource

dd [OPERAND]...
dd OPTION

Copy, and optionally convert, a file system resource

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[operands]

Operands:


- bs=BYTES : read and write up to BYTES bytes at a time (default: 512); overwrites ibs and obs.
- cbs=BYTES : the 'conversion block size' in bytes. Applies to the conv=block, and conv=unblock operations.
- conv=CONVS : a comma-separated list of conversion options or (for legacy reasons) file flags.
- count=N : stop reading input after N ibs-sized read operations rather than proceeding until EOF. See iflag=count_bytes if stopping after N bytes is preferred
- ibs=N : the size of buffer used for reads (default: 512)
- if=FILE : the file used for input. When not specified, stdin is used instead
- iflag=FLAGS : a comma-separated list of input flags which specify how the input source is treated. FLAGS may be any of the input-flags or general-flags specified below.
- skip=N (or iseek=N) : skip N ibs-sized records into input before beginning copy/convert operations. See iflag=seek_bytes if seeking N bytes is preferred.
- obs=N : the size of buffer used for writes (default: 512)
- of=FILE : the file used for output. When not specified, stdout is used instead
- oflag=FLAGS : comma separated list of output flags which specify how the output source is treated. FLAGS may be any of the output flags or general flags specified below
- seek=N (or oseek=N) : seeks N obs-sized records into output before beginning copy/convert operations. See oflag=seek_bytes if seeking N bytes is preferred
- status=LEVEL : controls whether volume and performance stats are written to stderr.


When unspecified, dd will print stats upon completion. An example is below.


6+0 records in
16+0 records out
8192 bytes (8.2 kB, 8.0 KiB) copied, 0.00057009 s,
14.4 MB/s


The first two lines are the 'volume' stats and the final line is the 'performance' stats. The volume stats indicate the number of complete and partial ibs-sized reads, or obs-sized writes that took place during the copy. The format of the volume stats is <complete>+<partial>. If records have been truncated (see conv=block), the volume stats will contain the number of truncated records.


Possible LEVEL values are:
- progress : Print periodic performance stats as the copy proceeds.
- noxfer : Print final volume stats, but not performance stats.
- none : Do not print any stats.


Printing performance stats is also triggered by the INFO signal (where supported), or the USR1 signal. Setting the POSIXLY_CORRECT environment variable to any value (including an empty value) will cause the USR1 signal to be ignored.

Conversion options:


- ascii : convert from EBCDIC to ASCII. This is the inverse of the ebcdic option. Implies conv=unblock.
- ebcdic : convert from ASCII to EBCDIC. This is the inverse of the ascii option. Implies conv=block.
- ibm : convert from ASCII to EBCDIC, applying the conventions for [, ] and ~ specified in POSIX. Implies conv=block.
- ucase : convert from lower-case to upper-case.
- lcase : convert from upper-case to lower-case.
- block : for each newline less than the size indicated by cbs=BYTES, remove the newline and pad with spaces up to cbs. Lines longer than cbs are truncated.
- unblock : for each block of input of the size indicated by cbs=BYTES, remove right-trailing spaces and replace with a newline character.
- sparse : attempts to seek the output when an obs-sized block consists of only zeros.
- swab : swaps each adjacent pair of bytes. If an odd number of bytes is present, the final byte is omitted.
- sync : pad each ibs-sided block with zeros. If block or unblock is specified, pad with spaces instead.
- excl : the output file must be created. Fail if the output file is already present.
- nocreat : the output file will not be created. Fail if the output file is not already present.
- notrunc : the output file will not be truncated. If this option is not present, output will be truncated when opened.
- noerror : all read errors will be ignored. If this option is not present, dd will only ignore Error::Interrupted.
- fdatasync : data will be written before finishing. - fsync : data and metadata will be written before finishing.

Input flags:


- count_bytes : a value to count=N will be interpreted as bytes.
- skip_bytes : a value to skip=N will be interpreted as bytes.
- fullblock : wait for ibs bytes from each read. zero-length reads are still considered EOF.

Output flags:


- append : open file in append mode. Consider setting conv=notrunc as well.
- seek_bytes : a value to seek=N will be interpreted as bytes.

General flags:


- direct : use direct I/O for data.
- directory : fail unless the given input (if used as an iflag) or output (if used as an oflag) is a directory.
- dsync : use synchronized I/O for data.
- sync : use synchronized I/O for data and metadata.
- nonblock : use non-blocking I/O.
- noatime : do not update access time.
- nocache : request that OS drop cache.
- noctty : do not assign a controlling tty.
- nofollow : do not follow system links.

v(uutils coreutils) 0.11.0

2026-09-01