>>>>> On 09 Jul 2004 11:27:47 +0900,
	enami tsugutomo <enami@sm.sony.co.jp> said:

> From bin/dd/dd.c:
> 
> 		/*
> 		 * POSIX states that if bs is set and no other conversions
> 		 * than noerror, notrunc or sync are specified, the block
> 		 * is output without buffering as it is read.
> 		 */
> 
> It looks like there is similar description in the manual page also.

Yes, this is necessary to copy tapes with variable length record size.
If dd doesn't have this feature, the length of each record may not be
preserved.
--
soda