[Wishlist] dd: per-block skip data option

[Theodoros V. Kalamatianos]

Quite often I find myself with the task of extracting data from files such 
as CD images. These files "encapsulate" the needed data bloks in larger 
blocks with a header and possibly some tailing data. E.g. a typical 
.bin/.cue CD image has each 2048 usable data sector encapsulated in a 2352 
byte block with a 16-byte header. I usually create simple C programs to 
handle this, but I think that dd would be more suited for such operations.

I would suggest the following additional dd arguments:

iskip=N : skip N bytes before each input block

iskiptail=N : skip N bytes after each input block

oseek=N : seek N bytes before each output block

oseektail=N : seek N bytes after each output block

I guess N could also be in blocks, but for operations like the one I 
mentioned one would have to use an extremely small block size, resulting 
in a LOT of read/write syscalls.

Is there any hope of something like this being included in coreutils ? Or 
would it be better suited for a separate dd-like utility ?


Regards,

Theodoros Kalamatianos