Index: bin/dd/args.c
===================================================================
--- bin/dd/args.c
+++ bin/dd/args.c
@@ -315,6 +315,7 @@
 	{ "ascii",	C_ASCII,	C_EBCDIC,	e2a_POSIX },
 	{ "block",	C_BLOCK,	C_UNBLOCK,	NULL },
 	{ "ebcdic",	C_EBCDIC,	C_ASCII,	a2e_POSIX },
+	{ "erase",	C_ERASE,	0,		NULL },
 	{ "ibm",	C_EBCDIC,	C_ASCII,	a2ibm_POSIX },
 	{ "lcase",	C_LCASE,	C_UCASE,	NULL },
 	{ "noerror",	C_NOERROR,	0,		NULL },
Index: bin/dd/dd.h
===================================================================
--- bin/dd/dd.h
+++ bin/dd/dd.h
@@ -101,5 +101,6 @@
 #define	C_STATUS	0x08000000
 #define	C_NOXFER	0x10000000
 #define	C_NOINFO	0x20000000
+#define	C_ERASE		0x40000000
 
 #define	C_PARITY	(C_PAREVEN | C_PARODD | C_PARNONE | C_PARSET)
Index: bin/dd/dd.1
===================================================================
--- bin/dd/dd.1
+++ bin/dd/dd.1
@@ -306,6 +306,14 @@
 filling them with
 .Dv NUL Ns s ,
 resulting in a sparse file.
+.It Cm erase
+If one or more output blocks would consist solely of
+.Dv NUL
+bytes, erase corresponding block(s) of the output media by issuing
+approprite
+.Xr ioctl 2
+instead of filling them with
+.Dv NUL Ns s .
 .It Cm swab
 Swap every pair of input bytes.
 If an input buffer has an odd number of bytes, the last byte will be
Index: bin/dd/dd.c
===================================================================
--- bin/dd/dd.c
+++ bin/dd/dd.c
@@ -471,6 +471,25 @@
 	}
 }
 
+static ssize_t
+dsk_erase(int d_fd, size_t size)
+{
+	off_t ioarg[2], npos;
+	int eval;
+
+	ioarg[0] = lseek(d_fd, (off_t)0, SEEK_CUR);
+	if (ioarg[0] < 0)
+		return (ioarg[0]);
+	ioarg[1] = size;
+	eval = ioctl(d_fd, DIOCGDELETE, ioarg);
+	if (eval != 0)
+		return (-1);
+	npos = lseek(d_fd, size, SEEK_CUR);
+	if (npos < 0)
+		return (npos);
+	return (npos - ioarg[0]);
+}
+
 void
 dd_out(int force)
 {
@@ -507,7 +526,7 @@
 		cnt = n;
 		do {
 			sparse = 0;
-			if (ddflags & C_SPARSE) {
+			if (ddflags & (C_SPARSE | C_ERASE)) {
 				sparse = 1;	/* Is buffer sparse? */
 				for (i = 0; i < cnt; i++)
 					if (outp[i] != 0) {
@@ -515,7 +534,7 @@
 						break;
 					}
 			}
-			if (sparse && !force) {
+			if (sparse && !force && !(ddflags & C_ERASE)) {
 				pending += cnt;
 				if ((out.flags & ISFIXSIZE) && (pending > out.mediasize)) {
 					nw = 0;
@@ -537,8 +556,11 @@
 					pending = 0;
 				}
 				if (cnt) {
-					nw = write(out.fd, outp, cnt);
-					out.seek_offset = 0;
+                                        if (!(ddflags & C_ERASE) || sparse == 0) {
+						nw = write(out.fd, outp, cnt);
+					} else {
+						nw = dsk_erase(out.fd, cnt);
+					}
 				} else {
 					return;
 				}