Hi Jim, Debian bug #410209 sounds like a sensible request for a doc (info page) improvement.
Could you take a quick look? Lucas On 09/02/07 at 02:42 +1100, Jiri Baum wrote: > Package: coreutils > Version: 5.97-5 > > The documentation for the dd(1) 'noerror' keyword does not make it clear what > happens to the blocks in which read errors occurred (or that this depends on > the apparently-unrelated 'sync' keyword). > > I would suggest that the current text "continue after read errors" (in the > man > and info pages) be expanded to indicate that without 'sync', input blocks > with errors are dropped; with 'sync', whatever was read of input blocks with > errors is padded to ibs and written. > > (If I understand the source correctly...) > > For example, to read data off a failing disk, one should use: > dd if=/dev/hdXY of=/filename.disk conv=noerror,sync > > Omitting the 'sync' is a problem, since all offsets will be off from the > first > read error onwards and the size of the disk image will not match the size > recorded in the superblock. This will lead to the following message from fsck > when attempting to repair the disk image: > > The filesystem size (according to the superblock) is X blocks > The physical size of the device is Y blocks > Either the superblock or the partition table is likely to be corrupt! > Abort<y>? > > > Jiri > -- > Jiri Baum <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> http://www.baum.com.au/~jiri -- | Lucas Nussbaum | [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.lucas-nussbaum.net/ | | jabber: [EMAIL PROTECTED] GPG: 1024D/023B3F4F | -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
