The other important part is that cat will not have issues with binary data, which I am embarrassed to admit I assumed was not the case for the reasons stated in TFA. pv is the tool I want to use for things like copying images to SD cards but I can never remember the exact syntax needed to get it to show me the percentage since I don’t use it often. dd has a decent syntax for its command parameters and has some fun options like ability to skip, so I can quickly create large empty files.
> pv is the tool I want to use for things like copying images to SD cards but I can never remember the exact syntax needed to get it to show me the percentage
You're in luck: the "syntax needed" is to literally not use any options:
Haha good point. The first time I encountered pv it was in the form of like cat your.img | pv ... > /dev/sdb and then you had to tell it what size to expect and enable it showing the progress bar, etc.
True, if you pipe a data stream to it, it can't tell what the size is going to be and you'd need the --size option. The progress bar is still default, though.
The other important part is that cat will not have issues with binary data, which I am embarrassed to admit I assumed was not the case for the reasons stated in TFA. pv is the tool I want to use for things like copying images to SD cards but I can never remember the exact syntax needed to get it to show me the percentage since I don’t use it often. dd has a decent syntax for its command parameters and has some fun options like ability to skip, so I can quickly create large empty files.