dd a compressed *.xz image into a partition

Question

I'm trying to copy a compressed image into a partition inside a Beaglebone. Usually, it is a 2 step process:

xz -d console.img.xz # console.img is created
dd if=console.img of=/dev/mmcblk0p3

Is there a way, I can do it in a single step without uncompressing the file *.img.xz? This is because after uncompressed the image, it is too big for the current partition.

Notwithstanding

Answer 1

This seems to work, if that is what you mean:

xz -d < console.img.xz - | dd of=/dev/mmcblk0p3

Orta

Would that be xz -d - < console.img.xz | dd of=/dev/mmcblk0p3 instead? Even then, why pipe the file and not just give it to xz? – Cacia

Answer 2

xzcat console.img.xz | dd of=/dev/mmcblk0p3 status=progress

xz -dc console.img.xz | dd of=/dev/mmcblk0p3 status=progress

Quicksand

While this code snippet may solve the question, including an explanation really helps to improve the quality of your post. Remember that you are answering the question for readers in the future, and those people might not know the reasons for your code suggestion. – Embracery

I like the use of xzcat here - It's a little simpler and easier to remember – Bekki

For anyone curious, on xz the -d option is for decompression and -c is to send the output to stdout (which helps since we are piping the output to dd as stdin) – Trifacial