dd

Make a bootable USB from an ISO and show progress

$ sudo dd if=[path/to/file.iso] of=[/dev/usb_drive] status=progress

$ sudo dd bs=4M conv=fsync if=[/dev/source_drive] of=[/dev/dest_drive]

$ dd bs=100 count=1 if=/dev/urandom of=[path/to/random_file]

$ dd bs=1M count=1024 if=/dev/zero of=[path/to/file_1GB]

$ sudo dd if=[/dev/drive_device] of=[path/to/file.img] status=progress

dd [if=file] [of=file] [bs=bytes] [count=n] [conv=opts] [status=level]

dd converts and copies files. It is commonly used for creating disk images, writing ISOs to USB drives, cloning drives, and low-level data manipulation. It reads from standard input and writes to standard output by default.

if=FILE

Read from FILE instead of stdin

Write to FILE instead of stdout

Read and write up to BYTES bytes at a time

Read up to BYTES bytes at a time

Write BYTES bytes at a time

Copy only N input blocks

Skip N input blocks before copying

Skip N output blocks before writing

Conversion options: fsync, notrunc, noerror, sync

Output level: none, noxfer, progress

Input flags: direct, dsync, fullblock, etc.

Output flags: direct, dsync, sync, etc.

Dangerous: dd will overwrite data without warning. Double-check the of= parameter before executing. Using wrong device names can destroy data.

Part of GNU Coreutils. The command name comes from IBM JCL (Job Control Language) where DD stands for "Data Definition". Available since early Unix.

cp(1), dcfldd(1), pv(1)