pv

Overview

pv (Pipe Viewer) shows a progress bar, throughput, and ETA for data moving through a pipeline. Perfect for long dd, compression, or network transfers where tools lack built-in progress.

sudo apt install pv

Syntax

pv [options] [file...]
… | pv | …

Common Options

Option	Description
-s size	Expected size (better ETA)
-a	Average rate
-r	Current rate
-t	Timer
-b	Bytes transferred
-p	Progress bar
-N name	Label
-c	Cursor progress for multi-pv
-L rate	Rate limit

Examples with Explanations

Copy with progress

pv big.iso > /mnt/usb/big.iso
pv big.iso | gzip > big.iso.gz

dd-style disk image

sudo dd if=/dev/sda bs=4M status=none | pv -s "$(blockdev --getsize64 /dev/sda)" | \
  sudo dd of=/dev/sdb bs=4M

(Or use dd status=progress on modern coreutils.)

Rate-limit a transfer

pv -L 10M archive.tar | ssh host 'cat > archive.tar'

Multi-stage labeled bars

pv -cN in file.tar | gzip | pv -cN gz > file.tar.gz

Related Commands

• dd — low-level copy
  
• rsync --progress — file sync progress
  
• wget/curl — HTTP progress
  
• progress / cv — attach to running coreutils (if installed)

Additional Resources

• man pv