SHRED(1)

📦
version 9.12 · 23 versions
, in arch rolling

💖 SHRED(1) 💖

okay so bestie, welcome to the User Commands section of the manual — this is the page for shred, and it's lowkey one of the most dramatic tools in coreutils. let's get into it 🫶

✨ NAME ✨

shred — overwrite a file to hide its contents, and optionally delete it 💅

🌸 SYNOPSIS 🌸

shred [OPTION]... FILE...

🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋

So here's the vibe: shred overwrites the FILE(s) you give it, over and over again, so that even the most expensive, extra, forensic-level hardware probing would have a genuinely hard time getting your data back. it's giving "burn the receipts, then burn the ashes" 🔥

if FILE is -, then shred shreds standard output. iconic.

Mandatory arguments to long options are mandatory for short options too. (yes bestie, the rule is the rule.)

👑 OPTIONS 👑

  • -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 details of data and metadata operations performed
  • -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

🌈 THE WHOLE DELETION SITUATION 🌈

FILE will be skipped with a diagnostic message if it is a FIFO, socket, or terminal, since its data does not reside on disk. no disk data, no shredding, sorry bestie 🙈

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. like, please don't delete your hard drive, i'm begging 😭

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 🎀

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.

fr fr — shred is doing its best, but it can't fight your filesystem's whole architecture or that one backup you forgot about. read the GNU coreutils manual, bestie, it's important 🫶

⭐ AUTHOR ⭐

Written by Colin Plumb. absolute legend, no cap 👑

💀 REPORTING BUGS 💀

Copyright © 2026 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.

🍓 SEE ALSO 🍓

GNU coreutils 9.12 · September 2026 — that's the source, the version and the date, bestie, and this manual page is officially done ✨ go forth and shred responsibly 💖

📦 where this page comes from