Re: [Hampshire] Securely deleting files

On 07/03/07, Roger Munford <rogermunford@???> wrote:
> If I had a file whose contents I wanted to remove completely from the
> disk, would it be enough to open it and use Fwrite() to overwrite each
> character and then delete?
>

It kind of depends who you wish to not be able to read it.
There are linux tools that automatically write special character
patterns to a file to erase it.
It will stop cursory users from seeing the contents, but people with
enough money and hardware could probably recover the contents.
I.e. Those tools will be good enough to stop your boss seeing what you
have done, but will not stop the police etc. if they need to know.
There are other alternatives, but they only work if you switch on
particular features before introducing the file to your system.

James