this post was submitted on 18 Aug 2024
222 points (97.4% liked)
Linux
48256 readers
806 users here now
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).
Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.
Rules
- Posts must be relevant to operating systems running the Linux kernel. GNU/Linux or otherwise.
- No misinformation
- No NSFW content
- No hate speech, bigotry, etc
Related Communities
Community icon by Alpár-Etele Méder, licensed under CC BY 3.0
founded 5 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
Why would dd have a limit on the amount of data it can copy, afaik dd doesn't check not does anything fancy, if it can copy one bit it can copy infinite.
Even if it did any sort of validation, if it can do anything larger than RAM it needs to be able to do it in chunks.
No, it can't copy infinite bits, because it has to store the current address somewhere. If they implement unbounded integers for this, they are still limited by your RAM, as that number can't infinitely grow without infinite memory.
Not looking at the man page, but I expect you can limit it if you want and the parser for the parameter knows about these names. If it were me it'd be one parser for byte size values and it'd work for chunk size and limit and sync interval and whatever else dd does.
Also probably limited by the size of the number tracking. I think dd reports the number of bytes copied at the end even in unlimited mode.
It’s less about dd’s limits and more laughs the fact that it supports units that might take decades or more for us to read a unit that size.
Well they do nickname it disk destroyer, so if it was unlimited and someone messed it up, it could delete the entire simulation that we live in. So its for our own good really.