No

[Karl Larsen]

Craig White wrote:
> On Sun, 2007-09-02 at 10:31 -0700, Les wrote:
>   
>> On Sun, 2007-09-02 at 18:11 +0100, Ian Malone wrote:
>>     
>>> Les Mikesell wrote:
>>>       
>>>> Just imagine how hard that will be 
>>>> now for the new user looking for the one simple command line it takes to 
>>>> use dd.
>>>>         
>>> Of course any sane human being would read the man page, but
>>> apparently it's more fun just to guess what will happen.
>>>
>>>       
>> Man pages are not useful to someone without considerable background.  As
>> you gain experience (and the knowledge that others are willing to share
>> with you), they become more helpful.  Most man pages are only basically
>> useful, which is what spurred the development of Info as I understand
>> it, and of course I often see even the most knowledgeable of our
>> compatriots here refer to wiki pages, wiki books, Fedora documentation,
>> and other sources, and some of these sources conflict, but if you have
>> some other knowledge and experience, you can sort the wheat from the
>> chaff (most of the time anyway), and get what you need.  For someone
>> like Karl, who is using the machine for a task, and only learning what
>> he needs to get by, these sources are often less than useful.  Trust me,
>> I remember learning on my own decades ago.  That is why I try to be
>> clear, concise and helpful.  
>>
>> 	If you have "the gift" of technology comprehension, you are lucky.
>> Most folks are not.
>>
>> I hope you can find the help you need in those resources, but I also
>> hope that I and others on this list will be helpful to you as well.
>>     
> ----
> 1 - one can curse the darkness or light a candle. If anyone feels the
> man pages are inadequate, you can help to make them more accessible.
> Linux software and documentation is a participatory project.
>
> 2 - the man pages exist for the purpose of providing on-line help. Most
> of them are pretty good. If they are too technical, generally googling
> for further expansion of the themes presented generally works pretty
> well. So does asking this list.
>
> 3 - there was a time when it was expected that you read the man pages or
> googled for answers prior to asking the list - it was general
> courtesy/respect for the list that you made some effort to
> understand/solve your issues first. Sadlly, this seems to be slipping
> away from us.
>
> 4 - there was a time when it was considered reasonable to slap around
> someone who failed to demonstrate an expenditure of time and effort to
> resolve their issues - I'll leave this as an exercise to the list
> readers to answer this on their own.
>
> 5 - often people don't know or forget that it is simple enough to open
> Konqueror and read man/info pages in GUI... click in address line and
> type 'man:dd' or 'info:dd'
>
> 6 - this is not directed at anyone specifically but if the shoe
> fits...wear it.
>
> Craig
>
>   
    I will wear it and just read info dd for about the 4th time in 5 
days. The first time I read it I was not aware that dd sends Everything 
including the file system. The info dd does not say this.

    I tried to copy this f7 which is about 8 Gbytes to another partition 
that was 10 Gbytes. The transfer failed because the 8 Gbyte f7 was from 
a 40 Gbyte partition :-)
If you read everything in info dd you will not see this listed.

    Google of dd gives you a lot of information but I have not seen any 
example of a 40 Gbyte copy.

    So it may be time to get the author of the dd info to add something 
about large copies and the use of the Rescue CD.



-- 

	Karl F. Larsen, AKA K5DI
	Linux User
	#450462   http://counter.li.org.