System: iMac M4, Sequoia 15.6
I found various suggestions for quick ways to create a large file for testing purposes. What I don't understand is what
dd
actually produces. Example:
dd if=/dev/urandom of=bar.txt bs=1g count=10 seek=100
Finder window says "bar.txt 118.11 GB" . But the GetInfo window says
"size 118,111,600,640 bytes (10.75 GB on disk) "
Further, the GetInfo window for "Macintosh HD" seems to agree with the smaller value so far as disk space used vs. free is concerned.
I'm guessing that my inexperience with dd
means I'm not using bs
and seek
correctly? If so, what are a set of compatible args to use so the output file has a reliable size reported?
As a side note, mkfile 10g fmkfile.txt
produces a file that both Finder and GetInfo agree is 10.74 GB.
Asked by Carl Witthoft
(374 rep)
Aug 4, 2025, 01:15 PM
Last activity: Aug 4, 2025, 01:55 PM
Last activity: Aug 4, 2025, 01:55 PM