define

[gypsumwolf]

time dd if=/dev/zero of=test.bin bs=1000000000 count=1

So, semi-newbie here. What does all this mean?
I figured test.bin is the file name + type and bs is byte size.

what is all the other things like "time", "dd", "if=/dev/zero", "of=" ?

[oz]

Go to a terminal and enter the following command to get the manual page for the dd command:

man dd

It breaks it down and explains it pretty well.

[sdimhoff]

time dd if=/dev/zero of=test.bin bs=1000000000 count=1

time if you put time first before any command, when the command is done it will return the amount of time that was spent performing that task.

example:

time slocate bin

## the normal
## output from
## slocate bin
## goes here
## then:

real    0m1.261s
user    0m0.116s
sys     0m0.040s

The rest of the expression

dd if=/dev/zero of=test.bin bs=1000000000 count=1

is just giving information to dd, so follow ozar's advice on that.