Help: DD(1) User Commands DD(1)
NAME
dd - convert and copy a file
SYNOPSIS
dd [OPERAND]...
dd OPTION
DESCRIPTION
Copy a file, converting and formatting according to the operands.
bs=BYTES
read and write up to BYTES bytes at a time (default: 512); over-
rides ibs and obs
cbs=BYTES
convert BYTES bytes at a time
conv=CONVS
convert the file as per the comma separated symbol list
count=N
copy only N input blocks
ibs=BYTES
read up to BYTES bytes at a time (default: 512)
if=FILE
read from FILE instead of stdin
iflag=FLAGS
read as per the comma separated symbol list
obs=BYTES
write BYTES bytes at a time (default: 512)
of=FILE
write to FILE instead of stdout
oflag=FLAGS
write as per the comma separated symbol list
seek=N (or oseek=N) skip N obs-sized output blocks
skip=N (or iseek=N) skip N ibs-sized input blocks
status=LEVEL
The LEVEL of information to print to stderr; 'none' suppresses
everything but error messages, 'noxfer' suppresses the final
transfer statistics, 'progress' shows periodic transfer statis-
tics
N and BYTES may be followed by the following multiplicative suffixes:
c=1, w=2, b=512, kB=1000, K=1024, MB=1000*1000, M=1024*1024, xM=M,
GB=1000*1000*1000, G=1024*1024*1024, and so on for T, P, E, Z, Y, R, Q.
Binary prefixes can be used, too: KiB=K, MiB=M, and so on. If N ends in
'B', it counts bytes not blocks.
Each CONV symbol may be:
ascii from EBCDIC to ASCII
ebcdic from ASCII to EBCDIC
ibm from ASCII to alternate EBCDIC
block pad newline-terminated records with spaces to cbs-size
unblock
replace trailing spaces in cbs-size records with newline
lcase change upper case to lower case
ucase change lower case to upper case
sparse try to seek rather than write all-NUL output blocks
swab swap every pair of input bytes
sync pad every input block with NULs to ibs-size; when used with block
or unblock, pad with spaces rather than NULs
excl fail if the output file already exists
nocreat
do not create the output file
notrunc
do not truncate the output file
noerror
continue after read errors
fdatasync
physically write output file data before finishing
fsync likewise, but also write metadata
Each FLAG symbol may be:
append append mode (makes sense only for output; conv=notrunc suggested)
direct use direct I/O for data
directory
fail unless a directory
dsync use synchronized I/O for data
sync likewise, but also for metadata
fullblock
accumulate full blocks of input (iflag only)
nonblock
use non-blocking I/O
noatime
do not update access time
nocache
Request to drop cache. See also oflag=sync
noctty do not assign controlling terminal from file
nofollow
do not follow symlinks
Sending a USR1 signal to a running 'dd' process makes it print I/O sta-
tistics to standard error and then resume copying.
Options are:
--help display this help and exit
--version
output version information and exit
AUTHOR
Written by Paul Rubin, David MacKenzie, and Stuart Kemp.
REPORTING BUGS
GNU coreutils online help:
Report any translation bugs to
SEE ALSO
Full documentation
or available locally via: info '(coreutils) dd invocation'
Packaged by Debian (9.7-3)
Copyright (C) 2025 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
License GPLv3+: GNU GPL version 3 or later censes/gpl.html>.
This is free software: you are free to change and redistribute it.
There is NO WARRANTY, to the extent permitted by law.
GNU coreutils 9.7 June 2025 DD(1)
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