wipe utility

[Fred]

On Fri, 2004-08-13 at 09:46, Cole Tuininga wrote:

> Essentially, just use it like any other shell command:
> 
> # wipe filename
> 
> # wipe file1 file2 filebase*
> 
> # wipe directory
> 
> > expected results
> 
> Wipe attempts to overwrite the file several times with different binary
> patterns, thereby (at least supposedly) making it tough to recover the
> data.

How is "wipe" any different from "shred", which is already on your linux
system?

> Keep in mind that it is completely useless on any journaling filesystem
> (such as linux's ext3).

If "wipe" could deal with that, that would actually make it worth the
effort. It would seem it's no better than shred in that regard.

I keep my /tmp partition as ext2 for that sole reason. Anything
sensitive goes there, and I can shred it afterwards. 

And since only temporary files goes there, I can shred that entire
partition if need be.

-- 
Fred -- fred at lrc.puissante.com -- place "[hey]" in your subject.
There are inflows and outflows -- and you're just a little node.