Warn about oflag=append without conv=notrunc.

diff --git a/ChangeLog b/ChangeLog
index b61e0207f192b0cb8fdc0cfd7c95f1172603b9a7..f32f5eace6feaf9069de9ed6e3528f814385bce2 100644 (file)
--- a/ChangeLog
+++ b/ChangeLog
@@ -1,5 +1,8 @@
 2006-08-09  Paul Eggert  <eggert@cs.ucla.edu>
 
+       * src/dd.c (usage): Warn about oflag=append without conv=notrunc.
+       See Debian bug 373736.
+
        * src/dircolors.hin: Add mlterm, rxvt-unicode; this fixes Debian
        bug 317503.
 

diff --git a/doc/ChangeLog b/doc/ChangeLog
index 3f0f26a32f3e25b512f91cdc2854e95773a10c81..6cdf3743f51aed3557d234f9c99d80d8a2b37e79 100644 (file)
--- a/doc/ChangeLog
+++ b/doc/ChangeLog
@@ -1,3 +1,8 @@
+2006-08-09  Paul Eggert  <eggert@cs.ucla.edu>
+
+       * coreutils.texi (dd invocation): Warn about oflag=append without
+       conv=notrunc.  See Debian bug 373736.
+
 2006-08-08  Paul Eggert  <eggert@cs.ucla.edu>
 
        * coreutils.texi (shuf invocation, Random sources): New sections.

diff --git a/doc/coreutils.texi b/doc/coreutils.texi
index 5a497614f1e7fe5ed59b9bcd9ef0b25ee6aef6b1..bf4d32f37060141a73f84ad5d460a714deefd962 100644 (file)
--- a/doc/coreutils.texi
+++ b/doc/coreutils.texi
@@ -7302,6 +7302,9 @@ system.
 Write in append mode, so that even if some other process is writing to
 this file, every @command{dd} write will append to the current
 contents of the file.  This flag makes sense only for output.
+If you combine this flag with the @samp{of=@var{file}} operand,
+you should also specify @samp{conv=notrunc} unless you want the
+output file to be truncated before being appended to.
 
 @item direct
 @opindex direct

diff --git a/src/dd.c b/src/dd.c
index 276ed7472efe63dc0211ebcf03df7e648b7f4b5b..ff30eda9800dd30f55614028b3efe4752acbf6ad 100644 (file)
--- a/src/dd.c
+++ b/src/dd.c
@@ -458,7 +458,7 @@ Each CONV symbol may be:\n\
 \n\
 Each FLAG symbol may be:\n\
 \n\
-  append    append mode (makes sense only for output)\n\
+  append    append mode (makes sense only for output; conv=notrunc suggested)\n\
 "), stdout);
       if (O_DIRECT)
        fputs (_("  direct    use direct I/O for data\n"), stdout);