[sclug] Copy drive problem

[Ed Davies]

On 2013-03-02 17:02, Neil Haughton wrote:
> The command I used was
> 
> dd iflag=nofollow if=/dev/sdb2 of=/dev/sdc2
> 
> I used the iflag argument because I didn't want symlinks to my external
> drive to be followed. What is occupying all the extra space?

Unless I grossly misunderstand what dd does then I'm puzzled about
this nofollow flag. It's documented as ?do not follow symlinks?. Apart
from resolving the name on the if parameter, when would dd follow a
symlink anyway? If it didn't follow a symlink on the if parameter
where would it copy from, that actual linked to file name?

My understanding is that dd just copies a linear sequence of blocks
with no regard to any file system as such.

Ed.