DD(1) BSD General Commands Manual DD(1)

NAME
     dddd - convert and copy a file

SYNOPSIS
     dddd [operands ...]

DESCRIPTION
     The dddd utility copies the standard input to the standard output.  Input
     data is read and written in 512-byte blocks.  If input reads are short,
     input from multiple reads are aggregated to form the output block.  When
     finished, dddd displays the number of complete and partial input and output
     blocks and truncated input records to the standard error output.

     The following operands are available:

     bbss=n     Set both input and output block size to n bytes, superseding the
              iibbss and oobbss operands.  If no conversion values other than
              nnooeerrrroorr, nnoottrruunncc or ssyynncc are specified, then each input block is
              copied to the output as a single block without any aggregation
              of short blocks.

     ccbbss=n    Set the conversion record size to n bytes.  The conversion
              record size is required by the record oriented conversion val-
              ues.

     ccoouunntt=n  Copy only n input blocks.

     ffiilleess=n  Copy n input files before terminating.  This operand is only
              applicable when the input device is a tape.

     iibbss=n    Set the input block size to n bytes instead of the default 512.

     iiff=file  Read input from file instead of the standard input.

     iisseeeekk=n  Seek on the input file n blocks.  This is synonymous with
              sskkiipp=n.

     oobbss=n    Set the output block size to n bytes instead of the default 512.

     ooff=file  Write output to file instead of the standard output.  Any regu-
              lar output file is truncated unless the nnoottrruunncc conversion value
              is specified.  If an initial portion of the output file is
              seeked past (see the oosseeeekk operand), the output file is trun-
              cated at that point.

     oosseeeekk=n  Seek on the output file n blocks.  This is synonymous with
              sseeeekk=n.

     sseeeekk=n   Seek n blocks from the beginning of the output before copying.
              On non-tape devices, an lseek(2) operation is used.  Otherwise,
              existing blocks are read and the data discarded.  If the user
              does not have read permission for the tape, it is positioned
              using the tape ioctl(2) function calls.  If the seek operation
              is past the end of file, space from the current end of file to
              the specified offset is filled with blocks of NUL bytes.

     sskkiipp=n   Skip n blocks from the beginning of the input before copying.
              On input which supports seeks, an lseek(2) operation is used.
              Otherwise, input data is read and discarded.  For pipes, the
              correct number of bytes is read.  For all other devices, the
              correct number of blocks is read without distinguishing between
              a partial or complete block being read.

     ccoonnvv=value[,value ...]
              Where vvaalluuee is one of the symbols from the following list.

              aasscciiii, oollddaasscciiii
                       The same as the uunnbblloocckk value except that characters
                       are translated from EBCDIC to ASCII before the records
                       are converted.  (These values imply uunnbblloocckk if the op-
                       erand ccbbss is also specified.)  There are two conversion
                       maps for ASCII.  The value aasscciiii specifies the recom-
                       mended one which is compatible with AT&T System V UNIX.
                       The value oollddaasscciiii specifies the one used in historic
                       AT&T UNIX and pre-4.3BSD-Reno systems.

              bblloocckk    Treats the input as a sequence of newline or end-of-
                       file terminated variable length records independent of
                       input and output block boundaries.  Any trailing new-
                       line character is discarded.  Each input record is con-
                       verted to a fixed length output record where the length
                       is specified by the ccbbss operand.  Input records shorter
                       than the conversion record size are padded with spaces.
                       Input records longer than the conversion record size
                       are truncated.  The number of truncated input records,
                       if any, are reported to the standard error output at
                       the completion of the copy.

              eebbccddiicc, iibbmm, oollddeebbccddiicc, oollddiibbmm
                       The same as the bblloocckk value except that characters are
                       translated from ASCII to EBCDIC after the records are
                       converted.  (These values imply bblloocckk if the operand
                       ccbbss is also specified.)  There are four conversion maps
                       for EBCDIC.  The value eebbccddiicc specifies the recommended
                       one which is compatible with AT&T System V UNIX.  The
                       value iibbmm is a slightly different mapping, which is
                       compatible with the AT&T System V UNIX iibbmm value.  The
                       values oollddeebbccddiicc and oollddiibbmm are maps used in historic
                       AT&T UNIX and pre-4.3BSD-Reno systems.

              llccaassee    Transform uppercase characters into lowercase charac-
                       ters.

              nnooeerrrroorr  Do not stop processing on an input error.  When an
                       input error occurs, a diagnostic message followed by
                       the current input and output block counts will be writ-
                       ten to the standard error output in the same format as
                       the standard completion message.  If the ssyynncc conver-
                       sion is also specified, any missing input data will be
                       replaced with NUL bytes (or with spaces if a block ori-
                       ented conversion value was specified) and processed as
                       a normal input buffer.  If the ssyynncc conversion is not
                       specified, the input block is omitted from the output.
                       On input files which are not tapes or pipes, the file
                       offset will be positioned past the block in which the
                       error occurred using lseek(2).

              nnoottrruunncc  Do not truncate the output file.  This will preserve
                       any blocks in the output file not explicitly written by
                       dddd.  The nnoottrruunncc value is not supported for tapes.

              oossyynncc    Pad the final output block to the full output block
                       size.  If the input file is not a multiple of the out-
                       put block size after conversion, this conversion forces
                       the final output block to be the same size as preceding
                       blocks for use on devices that require regularly sized
                       blocks to be written.  This option is incompatible with
                       use of the bbss=n block size specification.

              ssppaarrssee   If one or more output blocks would consist solely of
                       NUL bytes, try to seek the output file by the required
                       space instead of filling them with NULs, resulting in a
                       sparse file.

              sswwaabb     Swap every pair of input bytes.  If an input buffer has
                       an odd number of bytes, the last byte will be ignored
                       during swapping.

              ssyynncc     Pad every input block to the input buffer size.  Spaces
                       are used for pad bytes if a block oriented conversion
                       value is specified, otherwise NUL bytes are used.

              uuccaassee    Transform lowercase characters into uppercase charac-
                       ters.

              uunnbblloocckk  Treats the input as a sequence of fixed length records
                       independent of input and output block boundaries.  The
                       length of the input records is specified by the ccbbss op-
                       erand.  Any trailing space characters are discarded and
                       a newline character is appended.

     Where sizes are specified, a decimal, octal, or hexadecimal number of
     bytes is expected.  If the number ends with a ``b'', ``k'', ``m'', ``g'',
     or ``w'', the number is multiplied by 512, 1024 (1K), 1048576 (1M),
     1073741824 (1G) or the number of bytes in an integer, respectively.  Two
     or more numbers may be separated by an ``x'' to indicate a product.

     When finished, dddd displays the number of complete and partial input and
     output blocks, truncated input records and odd-length byte-swapping
     blocks to the standard error output.  A partial input block is one where
     less than the input block size was read.  A partial output block is one
     where less than the output block size was written.  Partial output blocks
     to tape devices are considered fatal errors.  Otherwise, the rest of the
     block will be written.  Partial output blocks to character devices will
     produce a warning message.  A truncated input block is one where a vari-
     able length record oriented conversion value was specified and the input
     line was too long to fit in the conversion record or was not newline ter-
     minated.

     Normally, data resulting from input or conversion or both are aggregated
     into output blocks of the specified size.  After the end of input is
     reached, any remaining output is written as a block.  This means that the
     final output block may be shorter than the output block size.

     If dddd receives a SIGINFO (see the ssttaattuuss argument for stty(1)) signal,
     the current input and output block counts will be written to the standard
     error output in the same format as the standard completion message.  If
     dddd receives a SIGINT signal, the current input and output block counts
     will be written to the standard error output in the same format as the
     standard completion message and dddd will exit.

DIAGNOSTICS
     The dddd utility exits 0 on success, and >0 if an error occurs.

SEE ALSO
     cp(1), mt(1), tr(1)

STANDARDS
     The dddd utility is expected to be a superset of the IEEE Std 1003.2
     (``POSIX.2'') standard.  The ffiilleess operand and the aasscciiii, eebbccddiicc, iibbmm,
     oollddaasscciiii, oollddeebbccddiicc and oollddiibbmm values are extensions to the POSIX stan-
     dard.

BSD                            January 13, 1994                            BSD