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 operate 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/>

SEE ALSO

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

       Packaged by Ubuntu (9.7-3ubuntu1)
       Copyright © 2025 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
       License GPLv3+: GNU GPL version 3 or later <https://gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html>.
       This is free software: you are free to change and redistribute it.
       There is NO WARRANTY, to the extent permitted by law.

GNU coreutils 9.7                                 October 2025                                          SHRED(1)