GNU bug report logs - #12794
Bug in dd: it sends wrong messages to stderr

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Package: coreutils;

Reported by: Ganton <kubry <at> terra.com>

Date: Sat, 3 Nov 2012 17:46:01 UTC

Severity: normal

Tags: notabug

Done: Paul Eggert <eggert <at> cs.ucla.edu>

Bug is archived. No further changes may be made.

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Message #18 received at 12794 <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Ganton <kubry <at> terra.com>
To: Paul Eggert <eggert <at> cs.ucla.edu>,
 12794 <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: Re: bug#12794: Bug in dd: it sends wrong messages to stderr
Date: Mon, 5 Nov 2012 22:43:09 +0100
Hello: 

> > when I do backups, I see "errors" from dd... that really aren't.
> > [...]
> > 1+0 records in
> > 1+0 records out
> > 512 bytes (512 B) copied, 0,000129625 s, 3,9 MB/s
> > [...]
> 
> > You have a point, but I'm afraid that dd is documented to behave
> that way, and it's part of the POSIX standard, and lots of people
> depend on it.  [...] 

Many ones will doubt that the POSIX standard is so broken that forces people 
to see messages in stderr that are not errors and not wanted. That even goes 
against the Unix philosophy, for example, against the "Rule of Silence: When a 
program has nothing surprising to say, it should say nothing" 
(http://www.faqs.org/docs/artu/ch01s06.html) and, even less, say it in stderr.

> [...] To turn off the chatter, use "dd status=noxfer".

Thanks for the information. If the user utilizes "dd status=noxfer", he gets 
rid of lines like
	512 bytes (512 B) copied, 0,000129625 s, 3,9 MB/s
in stderr, although he keeps seeing lines like
        1+0 records in
        1+0 records out
in stderr. Does anyone think a new report bug should be filled so that an 
optional dd parameter could eliminate that last kind of messages from stderr?

Greetings!




This bug report was last modified 12 years and 250 days ago.

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