shred

SHRED(1) User Commands SHRED(1)

NAME

   shred - overwrite a file to hide its contents, and optionally delete it

SYNOPSIS

   shred [OPTION]... FILE...

DESCRIPTION

   Overwrite the specified FILE(s) repeatedly, in order to make it harder for even very expensive hardware probing to recover the data.

   If FILE is -, shred standard output.

   Mandatory arguments to long options are mandatory for short options too.

   -f, --force
          change permissions to allow writing if necessary

   -n, --iterations=N
          overwrite N times instead of the default (3)

   --random-source=FILE
          get random bytes from FILE

   -s, --size=N
          shred this many bytes (suffixes like K, M, G accepted)

   -u     deallocate and remove file after overwriting

   --remove[=HOW]
          like -u but give control on HOW to delete;  See below

   -v, --verbose
          show progress

   -x, --exact
          do not round file sizes up to the next full block; this is the default for non-regular files

   -z, --zero
          add a final overwrite with zeros to hide shredding

   --help display this help and exit

   --version
          output version information and exit

   Delete FILE(s) if --remove (-u) is specified.  The default is not to remove the files because it is common to operate on device files like /dev/hda, and those files usually should not
   be  removed.   The  optional  HOW  parameter  indicates  how  to  remove  a directory entry: 'unlink' => use a standard unlink call.  'wipe' => also first obfuscate bytes in the name.
   'wipesync' => also sync each obfuscated byte to the device.  The default mode is 'wipesync', but note it can be expensive.

   CAUTION: shred assumes the file system and hardware overwrite data in place.  Although this is common, many platforms operate otherwise.  Also, backups and mirrors may  contain  unre‐
   movable copies that will let a shredded file be recovered later.  See the GNU coreutils manual for details.

AUTHOR

   Written by Colin Plumb.

REPORTING BUGS

   GNU coreutils online help: <https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/>
   Report any translation bugs to <https://translationproject.org/team/>