shred
When you delete a file from Linux or from any Operating System, then the file is not deleted permanently from the hard disk. When a file is deleted, it first gets moved to the trash and as soon as you clear off the trash the files get deleted for the file system
Overwrite the contents of the file multiple times to make it unrecoverable.
shred filename.txt
To change the number of times a file is to be overwritten
- By default, Shred performs
3 iterationsbut with this option we can define the number of iterations
shred -n 10 filename.txt
To remove the file after the shredding process is complete
shred -u filename.txt
To overwrite some specific bytes of text only
shred -s 5 filename.txt
To run shred command with verbose mode or to get how many times the file is overwritten
shred -v filename.txt´
To change permissions to allow writing if necessary while using shred command
shred -f filename.txt
To add a final, overwrite with zeros to hide shredding
shred -z filename.txt`