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Both dd's name and its command line syntax is intentionally arcane and bizarre and originally meant as a joke ;)

The tool is originally meant to do various conversions of formats of data on 8-track tapes and both its name and syntax is reference to (arguably less bizarre) syntax used by IBM's JCL to produce contents of tapes that need that kind of conversion to be usable on unix.

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The "originally meant as a joke" belief is derived from an Eric Raymond quote in the Jargon File, not the tool makers.

Define arcane. You can type "man dd" and acquire the required knowledge, it is not hidden. Whatever the intention was the syntax is simple and pleasant to use, at least for me ;)

It’s not arcane in the sense of “unknown”, but arcane in the sense of “bizarre” or “why is it like this?” Almost every other Unix/Linux tool would use `--if {if}` not `if={if}`.

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