Adding verbosity to dd

[Rashkae]

elmo wrote:
> I've used the dd command a few times to clone to a partition in an 
> external hard drive and it works but during its operation there's no 
> indication that it is doing something except a blinking cursor(?)
> 
> Can something be added to the dd command to make it display the data as 
> it is being copied?
> 
> Elmo
> 

dd will print transfer statistics if you send it a USR1 signal.  To 
benefit from this, start dd in the background

dd ...<whatever.. &

(The & and is what makes it a background process)

Then issue the command:

kill -USR1 %1

to see dd's transfer stats.