On 13/10/26 at 10:58, [email protected] wrote:
On Tue, Oct 13, 2026 at 04:32:21AM -0400, hlyg wrote:
On 10/12/26 6:35 PM, Andrew M.A. Cater wrote:
I'd also add a couple of arguments - oflag=sync and status=progress
dd if=debian-live-13.7.0-amd64-lxqt.iso of=dev/sdX obs=4M oflag=sync
status=progress
that allows for the data to be synced as it is written to the USB stick and
also shows progress on a long write.
It's quite handy when you're writing one of the longer images on a slow
machine / something slower than USB3
All the very best, as ever,
Andrew Cater
[[email protected]]
Thank Cater! Your command looks more professional.
Yes. It is my favourite too.
The "oflag=sync" makes the writes to the stick happen "in real
time", so that when dd finishes, you can be sure that the bytes
have been written, instead of waiting in the buffer cache
(entering a "sync" after it won't harm, but should return quickly).
The "status=progress" shows you how far the write is, which is
always nice for things which take a long time.
based on an Anssi Saari's suggestion:
why do we insist using "dd" (Disk Dump)? It's tricky, and has not a
comfortable syntax, why don't we suggest end users to use "pv" (Pipe
Viewer). Pipe Viewer is the equivalent of "netcat" for data transfers
between commands and devices, here the examples:
~# dd if=debian-live-13.7.0-amd64-lxqt.iso of=dev/sdX obs=4M oflag=sync
status=progress
and:
~# pv -Y debian-live-13.7.0-amd64-lxqt.iso >/dev/sdX
both commands do the same thing. Which ones is it better to propose to
an end user? For others nice examples please see "man pv".
Sorry for the rant but once tried I can't live without. :)
Kind regards.
--
Franco Martelli
