>>>>> On Fri, 9 Jul 2004 10:56:22 +0200,
	Martin Husemann <martin@duskware.de> said:

>> 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.

> I see - but shouldn't there be a conversion "stream" for the case at hand?

I don't see what you mean "stream" here.
If you need a specific block size for input, you can specify it by
ibs=, or, if you don't need any specific block size for input,
any input block size must be OK.

The point is that "bs=" is the way to make a copy with preserving
record size.

BTW, since many people don't actually know what "dd=" means, it may
be better to make our gzip behave just like gnu gzip, although the
right thing is to use right the option (obs=, in this case) for dd.
--
soda