I'm using dd command for block level
copy and just found out that there's no built in way to check the
progress. How do I use the Linux or Unix dd command while coping
/dev/sda to /deb/sdb and display a progress bar when data goes through a
pipe?
You need to use the pv command which allows you to see the progress of data through a pipeline. You need to
install pv command as described here.
Once installed, type the following commands to see the status bar.
Please note that if standard input is not a file and no size was given
with the
-s option, the progress bar cannot indicate how
close to completion the transfer is, so it will just move left and right
to indicate that data is moving. It will also show average MB/s rate:
Examples
WARNING! These examples may crash your computer and may result into data loss if not executed with care.
Copy /dev/sda to to /deb/sdb:
pv -tpreb /dev/sda | dd of=/dev/sdb bs=64M
OR
pv -tpreb /dev/sda | dd of=/dev/sdb bs=4096 conv=notrunc,noerror
Sample outputs:
Fig.01: pv and dd in action
You can
create a progress bar and display using the dialog command as follows:
(pv -n /dev/sda | dd of=/dev/sdb bs=128M conv=notrunc,noerror) 2>&1 | dialog --gauge "Running dd command (cloning), please wait..." 10 70 0
Sample outputs:
Fig.02: Show the Status of dd Command in progress using pv and dialog command