rm -rf : What does it really do

[Kurt Wall]

An unnamed Administration source, Joel Hammer, wrote:
% Just an idle thought while waiting for rm -rf* to remove a 40 gig directory. 
% 
% This is taking quite a while. Does  rm just unlink files, leaving the
% data recoverable, or does it make the date unrecoverable?

The data is potentially recoverable, in the sense that one can 
theoretically "undelete" deleted files until the inode information
is overwritten. In practice, however, the file system design does
not lend itself to undeletion, for much the same reason that the
file system design does not result in the need for defragmentation.
File deletion is performed by removing the relevant inode information.

If you want more secure deletion, use "shred".

Kurt
-- 
We are confronted with insurmountable opportunities.
		-- Walt Kelly, "Pogo"