srm(1) - f14

1srm(1)                                                                  srm(1)
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NAME

6       srm - securely remove files or directories
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SYNOPSIS

9       srm [OPTION]... FILE...
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DESCRIPTION

12       srm  removes each specified file by overwriting, renaming, and truncat‐
13       ing it before unlinking.  This prevents other people from undeleting or
14       recovering  any  information  about the file from the command line.  By
15       default srm uses 35 passes to overwrite the file's contents.   If  this
16       seems  overkill  you  can use use the --dod, --doe, --openbsd, --simple
17       option which use less passes.  If you specify more than one option  (of
18       those listed above) they are executed in the order shown above.
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20       You  can  use  srm  to overwrite block devices.  The device node is not
21       removed after overwriting.  This feature is available on Linux.
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23       srm, like every program that uses the  getopt  function  to  parse  its
24       arguments,  lets  you  use the -- option to indicate that all following
25       arguments are non-options.  To remove a file called `-f' in the current
26       directory, you could type either
27              rm -- -f
28       or
29              rm ./-f
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OPTIONS

32       Remove (unlink) the FILE(s).
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34       -d, --directory
35              ignored (for compatibility with rm(1))
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37       -f, --force
38              ignore nonexistent files, never prompt
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40       -i, --interactive
41              prompt before any removal
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43       -r, -R, --recursive
44              remove the contents of directories recursively
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46       -x, --one-file-system
47              when  removing  a hierarchy recursively, skip any directory that
48              is on a file system different from  that  of  the  corresponding
49              command line argument.  (Not supported on Windows)
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51       -s, --simple
52              only overwrite the file with a single pass of zero bytes
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54       -P, --openbsd
55              OpenBSD compatible rm.  Files are overwritten three times, first
56              with the byte pattern 0xff, then  0x00,  and  then  0xff  again,
57              before  they  are  deleted.   Files  with multiple links will be
58              unlinked but not overwritten.
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60       -D, --dod
61              US Dod compliant 7-pass overwrite.
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63       -E, --doe
64              US DoE compliant 3-pass overwrite.  Twice with a random pattern,
65              finally       with       the       bytes       "DoE".        See
66              http://cio.energy.gov/CS-11_Clearing_and_Media_Sanitiza‐
67              tion_Guidance.pdf for details.
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69       -v, --verbose
70              explain  what  is  being done.  If you set this option twice the
71              current write position is shown.
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73       -h, --help
74              display this help and exit
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76       -V, --version
77              output version information and exit
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SIGNALS

80       SIGINFO, SIGUSR2 show current write position and filename handled.
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NOTES

83       srm can not remove write protected files owned by another user, regard‐
84       less of the permissions on the directory containing the file.
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86       Development  and  discussion  of  srm is carried out at https://source‐
87       forge.net/projects/srm/ which is also accessible via http://srm.source‐
88       forge.net/.
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NAME

SYNOPSIS

DESCRIPTION

OPTIONS

SIGNALS

NOTES

SEE ALSO