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  op‐
       erate  otherwise.   Also,  backups  and  mirrors may contain unremovable 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/>

COPYRIGHT
       Copyright © 2023 Free Software Foundation,  Inc.   License  GPLv3+:  GNU  GPL  version  3  or  later  <https://gnu.org/li‐
       censes/gpl.html>.
       This is free software: you are free to change and redistribute it.  There is NO WARRANTY, to the extent permitted by law.

SEE ALSO
       Full documentation <https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/shred>
       or available locally via: info '(coreutils) shred invocation'

GNU coreutils 9.4                                           April 2024                                                   SHRED(1)