[sclug] I have an idea

[Alex Butcher]

On Sun, 26 Apr 2009, Neil Haughton wrote:

> I was reading the other day about various tools to properly delete files
> from a system (ie not just mark as deleted, but genuinely obliterate all
> traces from the storage device).
>
> It occurred to me that Linux, being the versatile marvel that it is ( :-) )
> should be able to wire itself up using some form of redirection or something
> like that such that any delete operation invoked one of these tools instead
> of doing the conventional delete operation.
>
> Is that possible? I suspect that if it is the kernel or filesystem doing the
> actual file delete operation I might be of of luck, but there's always a
> chance that someone cleverer than me has worked out how to do it.

<http://lwn.net/Articles/171924/>
<http://www.filesystems.org/project-sdfs.html>

There appears to have been an attempt to get it into ext4 as of early 2007,
but the author appears to have abandoned attempts to get it into the
mainstream kernel thereafter.

> TIA
> Neil Haughton.

HTH,
Alex.