Return-Path: Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id ; Tue, 12 Feb 2002 14:47:32 -0500 Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org id ; Tue, 12 Feb 2002 14:47:12 -0500 Received: from artax.karlin.mff.cuni.cz ([195.113.31.125]:46606 "HELO artax.karlin.mff.cuni.cz") by vger.kernel.org with SMTP id ; Tue, 12 Feb 2002 14:47:09 -0500 Date: Tue, 12 Feb 2002 20:47:10 +0100 From: Jan Hudec To: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org Cc: Matt Gauthier Subject: Re: secure erasure of files? Message-ID: <20020212204710.A7416@artax.karlin.mff.cuni.cz> Mail-Followup-To: Jan Hudec , linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org, Matt Gauthier In-Reply-To:

<20020212165504.A5915@devcon.net> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline User-Agent: Mutt/1.2.5i In-Reply-To: <20020212165504.A5915@devcon.net>; from aferber@techfak.uni-bielefeld.de on Tue, Feb 12, 2002 at 04:55:04PM +0100 Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org X-Mailing-List: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org > I don't know if any filesystem currently relocates blocks if you > overwrite a file, but it's certainly possible and allowed (everything > else except the filesystem itself simply must not care where the data > actually ends up on the disk). AFAIK, ext2 tries to defragment files when possible. Thus if the file was fragmented and the blocks after some fragment are free, it will use these instead of the original ones somewhere far apart. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- - Jan Hudec `Bulb' - To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in the body of a message to majordomo@vger.kernel.org More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html Please read the FAQ at http://www.tux.org/lkml/