abxxbo / cdp

cdp is a utility that copies files from one file to another.

cdp

cdp is a utility that copies files from one file to another. Its intention is to be as quick as possible, and faster (more reliable) than dd.

Features

• cdp is "fool proof" in the sense that you cannot overwrite a partition with nonsensical data.

Flags

• Input file (file to be copied from) can be defined with --input-file
• Output file (file to copy to) can be defined with --output-file
  • If --output-file is not specified, the file defined with ``-input-file` will be written to stdout.
• If you are writing to a partition/drive, you MUST specify --force-partition. This is to avoid accidental data loss.
  • NOTE: When cdp is done writing data to a partition/drive, it will automatically execute sync(1) for you.

Example

This is an example usage of all features presented in cdp.

Partition Blocking

# /dev/sda is a system partition -- we are running our machine on it.
$ cdp --input-file example.iso --output-file /dev/sda1 --drive /dev/sda
[ INFO ] You are not using --force-partition, this will certainly lead to trouble.
[ INFO ] /dev/sda1 is a system partition. I am not writing data to this partition.

Writing to stdout

$ cat << EOF > foo
Example file to be printed to stdout
EOF
$ cdp --input-file foo
Example file to be printed to stdout.

Writing to a file

$ cat << EOF > foo2
This file will be copied to foo3
EOF
$ cdp --input-file foo2 --output-file foo3
$ cat foo3
This will be copied to foo3

Compiling

You may compile CDP using this command. It is recommended that you do not compile cdp, rather, use one of the releases.

$ make

To install CDP, run

$ sudo make install

This will install cdp to /usr/local/bin/cdp