>> if you want progress information with cat you can combine it with the pv command
Since coreutils-8.24[1], dd "accepts a new status=progress level to print data transfer statistics on stderr approximately every second."
> Because the command probably doesn't figure out the right size automatically . . . this can mean massive performance differences between invocations
For anyone who's wondering, here are two good threads on determining optimal block size: https://superuser.com/questions/234199/good-block-size-for-d... http://stackoverflow.com/questions/6161823/dd-how-to-calcula...