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Looks like HFS+ is fixed-block size
Authored by: jlowrey on Apr 12, '02 01:50:41AM

I wrote Trash X. When I added file shredding features to it, I relied on "rm -P" to handle the task. This was an embarassing mistake. In short, "rm -P" does not reliably shred files on HFS+ volumes. In my tests, it only worked on HFS+ in situations where the file to be shredded was larger than the available free space. In all other cases with HFS+, "rm -P" merely deleted the file without overwriting it. It is interesting to note however that "rm -P" takes longer to execute than just "rm". I believe that on HFS+ disks, "rm -P" essentially deletes the old file and creates a new file on each pass and writes its data sequence into it, but that is just conjecture on my part.

It upsets me to see "rm -P" so frequently touted as a CLI file shredding option. The reality is that most OS X users are using HFS+ partitions, and that is what Apple ships out of the box. For the majority of OS X users, "rm -P" is not a viable option.

And now the shameless plug. To my knowlege, Trash X is the only OS X GUI file shredder that offers support for files larger than 2 GB, and supports shredding freespace on disks.

Regards,

John
www.northernSW.com



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