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dcfldd

v1.9.2 open-source

dcfldd is an enhanced version of GNU dd for forensics and security, adding on-the-fly hashing, status output, disk wiping, output verification, and multiple outputs.

source ↗ rss ↗ What is a cyber toolchain? last repo push Jun 1, 2025

Summary

dcfldd is an open-source command-line disk-imaging tool, licensed under GPL-2+, that extends GNU dd with on-the-fly hashing of data as it is copied so investigators can verify integrity without a separate pass. It also reports transfer progress, wipes disks to a specified pattern, verifies a target against a source image bit-for-bit, and can write to multiple outputs or split them across files, which suits digital forensics practitioners handling disk acquisition rather than general system administrators. Its README describes it as an enhanced version of GNU dd rather than a break from it, and positions itself as the forensics-oriented alternative to plain dd. Originally built at the DoD Computer Forensics Laboratory and now maintained by volunteers, the project has had no commits in the past year and its last release was 445 days ago, so anyone adopting it should expect a slow-moving codebase.

dcfldd is an enhanced version of GNU dd for forensics and security, adding on-the-fly hashing, status output, disk wiping, output verification, and multiple outputs.

How dcfldd helps

Can I prove this disk image matches the original drive, bit for bit?

it hashes the data as it streams off the source and again as it lands on the destination, so the two digests can be compared without a separate verification pass

Is a wiped drive actually clean, or could data still be recovered?

it writes a specified pattern across every sector and can verify the result matches that pattern bit-for-bit, ruling out leftover fragments of the original data

Did every byte make it to all my backup copies during acquisition?

it writes to multiple output files or disks in the same pass, so each destination is a direct copy of what was read rather than a copy of a copy

Can I hand this disk image to a court or a second examiner without them just taking my word for it?

the hash computed during acquisition travels with the log, giving a fixed reference value anyone can recompute against the image later

How do I fit a large disk image onto smaller media or a size-limited filesystem?

it splits the output into multiple files as it writes, so the acquisition doesn't depend on a single file staying under a size limit

all 3 features, with the evidence for each →

Languages

Not documented

Features

3 capabilities

Built from dcfldd's releases, docs, README and our own runs. “Seen” marks the month we first spotted a release the vendor didn't date. Group names and tags are our labels.

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  • dcfldd covers 1 of the 8 investigation and response capabilities we track.

What dcfldd offers you

  • Command-line interface1
All capabilities 3 capabilities
Image splitting options shipped Allows controlling image splitting and probing via limit, sizeprobe, and splitformat arguments. 3 releases · 1 other source · first seen Nov 2019

Shared capability: Disk and filesystem forensics

Also counts toward: Command-line interface

release

  • Adds the diffwr command-line flag to conditionally write output blocks only if the destination block content differs from existing data 1.9 · Feb 2023 · source · release history
  • Added support for runtime endianness check. 1.8 · Oct 2022 · source · release history
  • Adds limit=<bytes>, sizeprobe=<bytes>, and splitformat=MAC|WIN options to control image splitting and probing v1.5 · Nov 2019 · source · release history

example

  • Perform a block-level comparison write where changes are skipped if blocks are identical, saving I/O time on partial overwrites. dcfldd if=input.img of=/dev/sdb diffwr=on 1.9 · Feb 2023 · source
Bash completion support shipped Adds bash completion support for the new diffwr flag. 2 releases · 1 other source · first seen Feb 2023

release

  • Added --with-bash-completion configure switch to enable bash completion v1.9.2 · Oct 2024 · source · release history
  • Adds bash completion support for the new diffwr flag 1.9 · Feb 2023 · source · release history

example

  • Enable bash tab-completion for dcfldd commands and flags when building from source. ./configure --with-bash-completion && make v1.9.2 · Oct 2024 · source
Build assertions shipped Enables assertions during build for debugging. 1 release · first seen Oct 2024

release

  • Enabled asserts by default during build (can be disabled with --disable-assert) v1.9.2 · Oct 2024 · source · release history

Lines in monospace are the tool's own words: help text parsed from its source, or an endpoint from its API document. Under release, a line is our summary of a dated release. Under docs, it is quoted from the tool's own documentation or website. Each links back to the source it came from.

Score card

  1. Shipping velocity releases a month, last 12 months
  2. Documentation quality release-notes rubric, 0–100
  3. Breaking-change discipline how rarely a release breaks users, and notice given
  4. Maintenance risk quiet time against its own cadence, maintainers
  5. Innovation & surface new capabilities, API and MCP surface
  6. Community health
  7. Contributor trend distinct committers, this year against last
  8. Maintainer concentration bus factor now against a year ago
  9. Issue backlog trend issues closed per issue opened, 12 months
  10. Responsiveness median time to a maintainer’s first reply

Nine scores for dcfldd, each built from the releases, notes and API history this site tracks — and, on Researcher and Business, where it stands among every measured tool in its category and how that has moved.

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Each score is 0–100 on a published rubric, derived from data this site already shows. A dimension we cannot measure says so — it is never scored 0 and never enters a rank.

How this is scored
  • Shipping velocity — releases a month over the last 12 months, on a log scale where 16 a month scores 100. Needs 3 releases in the window.
  • Documentation quality — the release-notes rubric published on the analytics page, unchanged.
  • Breaking-change discipline — the share of releases carrying a breaking change (none scores 100, half or more scores 0). Only projects that label breaking changes are measured: a clean record cannot be told from an unlabelled one.
  • Maintenance risk — quiet time measured against the tool's own release cadence (quiet longer than 90 days and three typical gaps scores 0), plus the number of active maintainers and whether contributors are growing, where known. Higher is lower risk.
  • Innovation & surface — new capabilities in the feature ledger this year, API and MCP operations added, and the share of commits that are features: the mean of whichever we hold.
  • Community health (open-source tools only) — each is a direction, not a size: contributors this year against last, the bus factor now against a year ago, and issues closed per issue opened, where steady scores 50, doubled 100 and halved 0; plus the median time to a maintainer's first reply (an hour scores about 100, a month or more 0). A commercial card has no repository and carries none of the four.
  • Documented delivery (commercial tools) — when a vendor's documented new capabilities have slowed against its own baseline, that counts against the overall standing as heavily as two low dimensions. Steady delivery, or too little history to judge, leaves the standing alone; it is never a sixth score.
  • Open-source tools are scored on repository signals; commercial tools on their published changelog. Ranks compare tools within one category and one profile and need at least five measured peers; the overall standing needs three ranked dimensions. Best-in-breed or consolidator is a shape, not a quality, and is never scored.

Release-note detail over time

See how much detail dcfldd puts in its release notes, quarter by quarter, and compare it with tracked tools in the same category. This history uses up to ten retained, reviewed notes per tool; sparse or blank older quarters may reflect that limit.

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Releases

Show

5 entries

  1. August 20261
  3. October 20241
  5. February 20231
  7. October 20221
  9. November 20191
    Show

    5 entries

    1. docs update Aug 31, 2026 · issue 060

      dcfldd v1.8 adds runtime endianness detection for correct cross-architecture operation.

      • Adds runtime endianness check so dcfldd correctly detects byte order at execution time on any supported architecture.

      1 detail in Everything

    2. v1.9.2 Oct 21, 2024 · release notes

      Adds --with-bash-completion configure flag to enable bash completion for dcfldd

      └──▷ GET THIS VERSION 
      $ git clone --branch v1.9.2 https://github.com/resurrecting-open-source-projects/dcfldd.git
# already have the repo? check out this version:
$ git checkout v1.9.2
      └──▷ TRY IT
      Enable bash tab-completion for dcfldd commands and flags when building from source.
      $ ./configure --with-bash-completion && make
      • Added --with-bash-completion configure switch to enable bash completion
      • Enabled asserts by default during build (can be disabled with --disable-assert)

      2 details in Everything

    3. 1.9 Feb 9, 2023 · release notes

      dcfldd 1.9 adds diffwr option to write output only when destination content differs

      └──▷ GET THIS VERSION 
      $ git clone --branch 1.9 https://github.com/resurrecting-open-source-projects/dcfldd.git
# already have the repo? check out this version:
$ git checkout 1.9
      └──▷ TRY IT
      Perform a block-level comparison write where changes are skipped if blocks are identical, saving I/O time on partial overwrites.
      $ dcfldd if=input.img of=/dev/sdb diffwr=on
      • Adds the diffwr command-line flag to conditionally write output blocks only if the destination block content differs from existing data
      • Adds bash completion support for the new diffwr flag

      2 details in Everything

    4. 1.8 Oct 17, 2022 · release notes

      Adds runtime endianness check to dcfldd v1.8.

      └──▷ GET THIS VERSION 
      $ git clone --branch 1.8 https://github.com/resurrecting-open-source-projects/dcfldd.git
# already have the repo? check out this version:
$ git checkout 1.8
    5. v1.5 Nov 2, 2019 · release notes

      dcfldd v1.5 adds limit, sizeprobe, splitformat options and bash completion

      └──▷ GET THIS VERSION 
      $ git clone --branch v1.5 https://github.com/resurrecting-open-source-projects/dcfldd.git
# already have the repo? check out this version:
$ git checkout v1.5
      • Adds bash-completion script for interactive shell support
      • Adds limit=<bytes>, sizeprobe=<bytes>, and splitformat=MAC|WIN options to control image splitting and probing
      • Moves source code layout from root directory into src/ subdirectory

      3 details in Everything

      └──▷ BREAKING ON UPGRADE
      • !Source code is now located in src/ instead of the repository root, affecting any external scripts or builds that directly reference root-level source files.

    Project health

    Issue, contributor and maintainer activity in resurrecting-open-source-projects/dcfldd, 2023-10 – 2026-09, as of 2026-09-25. Twelve-month figures first; the trend lines run the whole window.

    1. Contributors 0 −2 vs prior 12 months
    2. Maintainers 0 +0 joined · −2 left, last 12 months
    3. Bus factor 0 committers behind half the commits
    4. Community-filed 100% of issues opened, last 12 months
    5. Median time to close not measured issues closed, last 12 months
    6. Open backlog 2 of 21 issues ever filed
    1. Issues opened / month 0 · 0 communitymaintainers
    2. Open backlog 2
    3. Contributors / month 0
    4. Commits / month 0
    5. Stars 128
    Issue themes, last 12 months
    • other 100%

    Counts from the project's public repository and git history; no individuals are identified. Maintainers are the committers covering 80% of the last year's commits. how we measure this

    Libraries its release ships

    What its latest release locks, checked against known advisories.

    None of its release's images build from a lockfile we can read.

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