What is the difference between CP and DD

[Dezo]

difference between

$cp -a (archieve, so symlink is saved)

and

$dd if=.... of=....

[Roxoff]

Looking at the man page for each, cp is a tool that 'copies files and directories' and dd is a tool that will 'convert and copy a file'. If you take a read of the man pages for each, you'll get a feel for what each of them can do.

[Dezo]

sorry i should have explained better.

I'm trying to copy a complete filesystem.
are there data that can't be copied with $cp -a -r?
dd can copy entire drive, with $cp you will need to mount origin/destination drives first

dd will definitely work, e.g.
$dd if=/dev/sda1 of=/dev/sdb1 (here i copy the first partition on sd hard drive to first partition on flash drive)
everything will be copied, I'm wondering what the limit of cp is... ...

one of the reason i'm trying this out, is because... when you use 'dd' to backup a partition, the .iso/.img is hell huge... it's annoying the **** out of me
(e.g. $dd if=/dev/sda1 of=/home/user/backup.img)

[oz]

one of the reason i'm trying this out, is because... when you use 'dd' to backup a partition, the .iso/.img is hell huge... it's annoying the **** out of me
(e.g. $dd if=/dev/sda1 of=/home/user/backup.img)

Hello and welcome!

If you've not looked at it yet, you might check out fsarchiver:

FSArchiver

I've used it hundreds of times without issue, and it gives a nice compressed archive that should be smaller than those produced by using dd.

[oz]

Just wanted to quickly add that the easiest way to use this is by booting a liveCD, or liveUSB device. I currently run it by booting the Parted Magic LiveCD, but it is available in a liveUSB format, too.