What's The Limit

[Mikkel L. Ellertson]

Mike McCarty wrote:
> Mikkel L. Ellertson wrote:
>>
>> Dumb question - what happens if you run something like
>> "cat /dev/hdb" or "less /dev/hdb"? I would think that
>> you could access the file contents that way.
> 
> But, since there is no file, there is no EOF. Using dd
> lets you control how much data you pull. The other techniques
> don't do that.
> 
Are you sure there isn't an EOF? I would think that the EOF from the
original file would be written to the CD. I am not sure how it would
work with a binary file, but I suspect that it would work as well.
After all, Linux (and UNIX) treat devices as files.

Does using "dd if=/dev/hdb of=test.txt" access /dev/hdb differently
then opening it in a text editor?

Mikkel
-- 

  Do not meddle in the affairs of dragons,
for thou art crunchy and taste good with Ketchup!