NWIPE(1)

📦
version 0.34 · 2 versions
, in debian bookworm, ubuntu noble

🌸 NWIPE(1) — the "securely erase disks" era 💅

okay bestie, this is the nwipe page from the User Commands corner of the manual, and no cap, it's a whole vibe. buckle up 🎀

✨ NAME ✨

nwipe — securely erase disks 🧹💀

✨ SYNOPSIS ✨

nwipe [options] [device1] [device2] ...

like. you hand it options, you hand it devices, it does the thing 🫶

✨ DESCRIPTION ✨

so nwipe is literally the command that securely erases disks using a whole buffet of recognised methods. iconic behavior honestly. 👑

fr fr it's a fork of the dwipe command that Darik's Boot and Nuke (dban) uses. and if you want a quick and easy bootable CD version, nwipe is included with partedmagic — cute and convenient, we love that for us. 💖

the whole reason nwipe exists: people needed to run the DBAN dwipe command outside of DBAN, so it could work with literally any host distribution, which gives you better hardware support. it's essentially the same as dwipe, just with a few glow-ups:

  • pthreads is used instead of fork 🧵
  • the parted library is used to detect drives 🔍
  • the code is designed to be compiled with gcc 🛠️
  • SIGUSR1 can be used to log the stats of the current wipe 📊

✨ OPTIONS ✨

  • -V, --version — prints the version number, so you know exactly which era of nwipe you're in ⭐
  • -h, --help — prints a help summary, the little menu of everything 🎀
  • --autonuke — if no devices were given on the command line, it starts wiping all devices immediately 😭. if devices were given, it starts wiping only those specified devices immediately. no chill, straight to business 🔥
  • --autopoweroff — powers the system off when the wipe completes, but delayed for one minute ⏳. during that one minute delay you can abort the shutdown by typing sudo shutdown -c — your emergency escape hatch bestie 🫶
  • --sync=NUM — will perform a syn after NUM writes (default: 100000)
    • 0 — fdatasync after the disk is completely written. fdatasync errors not detected until completion. 0 is not recommended as disk errors may cause nwipe to appear to hang 😬
    • 1 — fdatasync after every write. Warning: lower values will reduce wipe speeds 🐌
    • 1000 — fdatasync after 1000 writes
  • --noblank — do not perform the final blanking pass after the wipe (default is to blank, except when the method is RCMP TSSIT OPS-II) 🙈
  • --nowait — do not wait for a key before exiting (default is to wait) ⌨️
  • --nosignals — do not allow signals to interrupt a wipe (default is to allow) 🚫
  • --nousb — do not show or wipe any USB devices, whether in GUI, --nogui or autonuke mode. (default is to allow USB devices to be shown and wiped) 🔌
  • --nogui — do not show the GUI interface. can only be used with the autonuke option. nowait option is automatically invoked with the nogui option. SIGUSR1 can be used to retrieve the current wiping statistics 📈
  • -v, --verbose — log more messages, useful for debugging 🐛
  • --verify=TYPE — whether to perform verification of erasure (default: last)
    • off — do not verify
    • last — verify after the last pass
    • all — verify every pass
    • please mind that HMG IS5 enhanced always verifies the last (PRNG) pass regardless of this option 👀
  • -m, --method=METHOD — the wiping method (default: dodshort)
    • dod522022m / dod — 7 pass DOD 5220.22-M method
    • dodshort / dod3pass — 3 pass DOD method
    • gutmann — Peter Gutmann's Algorithm
    • ops2 — RCMP TSSIT OPS-II
    • random / prng / stream — PRNG Stream
    • zero / quick — Overwrite with zeros 0x00
    • one — Overwrite with ones 0xFF
    • verify_zero — Verifies disk is zero filled
    • verify_one — Verifies disk is 0xFF filled
    • is5enh — HMG IS5 enhanced
  • -l, --logfile=FILE — filename to log to. default is STDOUT 📝
  • -p, --prng=METHOD — PRNG option (mersenne|twister|isaac|isaac64) 🎲
  • -q, --quiet — anonymize serial numbers, GUI & logs display:
    • XXXXXXXX = S/N obtained & anonymized.
    • ???????? = S/N not available.
  • -r, --rounds=NUM — number of times to wipe the device using the selected method (default: 1) 🔁
  • -e, --exclude=DEVICES — up to ten comma separated devices to be excluded, examples:
    • --exclude=/dev/sdc
    • --exclude=/dev/sdc,/dev/sdd

💀 BUGS 💀

please see the GitHub site for the latest list — it's giving "we keep receipts" energy: https://github.com/martijnvanbrummelen/nwipe/issues 🐛

👑 AUTHOR 👑

Nwipe is developed by Martijn van Brummelen <github@brumit.nl> — absolute main character, respect the icon 💜

🌈 SEE ALSO 🌈

shred(1), dwipe(1), dd(1), dcfldd(1), dc3dd(1)

ok that's the whole page bestie, every flag, every default, every warning, all of it. go forth and wipe responsibly, no cap 🫶✨

and that's a wrap on nwipe version 0.33 from March 2022 — ty for coming to my ted talk, slay, periodt 💅🎀🦋

📦 where this page comes from