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

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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 iterations but 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`