On Fri, 22 Jul 2005 11:13, Michael JasonSmith wrote: > On Fri, 2005-07-22 at 10:08 +1200, John Carter wrote: > > I have heard many cries about the lack of a recycle bin in Linux. > > Not from the KDE or GNOME users :) > > > Just remember that if you want to get rid of things for ever, you use > > "rm". "rm" means I want it dead, gone, never to plague me again... > > Oh! if only it was that simple :) Indeed!
> (Lets not go there!) But people should know that the 'rm' command merely flags the file in the directory as removed and returns the space which the file occupied to the free list. i.e. It does not remove the data from the disk at all. The space will probably get over-written at some indeterminate time in the future. The command 'shred' will overwrite the space in some filesystems, but probably not in a journelled one. See the CAUTION paragraphs in the 'shred' manual page. If you have sensitive data that has to be removed, 'shred' the whole disk, not forgetting that the swap, /tmp, and /var/tmp partitions might be mounted on another disk. While this is sufficient to keep your data safe from the casually curious, remember that wealthy and determined spooks can still sometimes recover some of your information. For total security incinerate the disk. Oxyacetylene torches do a satisfactory job, so I'm told. -- CS
