Linux - SoftwareThis forum is for Software issues.
Having a problem installing a new program? Want to know which application is best for the job? Post your question in this forum.
Notices
Welcome to LinuxQuestions.org, a friendly and active Linux Community.
You are currently viewing LQ as a guest. By joining our community you will have the ability to post topics, receive our newsletter, use the advanced search, subscribe to threads and access many other special features. Registration is quick, simple and absolutely free. Join our community today!
Note that registered members see fewer ads, and ContentLink is completely disabled once you log in.
If you have any problems with the registration process or your account login, please contact us. If you need to reset your password, click here.
Having a problem logging in? Please visit this page to clear all LQ-related cookies.
Get a virtual cloud desktop with the Linux distro that you want in less than five minutes with Shells! With over 10 pre-installed distros to choose from, the worry-free installation life is here! Whether you are a digital nomad or just looking for flexibility, Shells can put your Linux machine on the device that you want to use.
Exclusive for LQ members, get up to 45% off per month. Click here for more info.
A problem with this method is that it will fill your harddisk temporarily. I'm not sure if this can cause problems, I guess you could lose some log messages. Is this good enough for your needs?
Have you had success using it? I'm trying to wipe the free space on my hard drive. After the first pass, it consistently tells me that I'm out of free space. My command is: bcwipe -F -S -v -m 3 /
One of the secure delete packages includes an sfill utility for just this purpose. Also you may want to consider temporarily disabling the journaling while you do this.
Journalling is a nice little feature that keeps track of changes in your file system. If you use a journaling filesystem like ext3 or reiser, then your system is making a nice little log of everything that it deletes.
Yeah the Windows utilities more or less do the same thing as dd if=/dev/<datasource> of=/mountpoint/scratch ; rm /mountpoint/scratch
Its the only safe way short of some elaborate filesystem locking to avoid destroying data in actual files.
Yes you will get a disk full warning, but the process is to delete the new empty file so its no longer full.
Of course, it doesn't clear block-allocated file-free space (space within allocated blocks that is not used by the files with the allocation.)
LinuxQuestions.org is looking for people interested in writing
Editorials, Articles, Reviews, and more. If you'd like to contribute
content, let us know.