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shred — Overwrite files to securely delete data. More information: <https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/m

Submitted by: @import:tldr-pages·Mar 2, 2026·

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shreddeletecommandfilesoverwriteclisecurelydata

Problem

How to use the shred command: Overwrite files to securely delete data. More information: <https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/manual/html_node/shred-invocation.html>.

Solution

shred — Overwrite files to securely delete data. More information: <https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/manual/html_node/shred-invocation.html>.

Overwrite a file:

shred {{path/to/file}}

Overwrite a file and show progress on the screen:

shred {{[-v|--verbose]}} {{path/to/file}}

Overwrite a file, leaving zeros instead of random data:

shred {{[-z|--zero]}} {{path/to/file}}

Overwrite a file a specific number of times:

shred {{[-n|--iterations]}} {{25}} {{path/to/file}}

Overwrite a file and remove it:

shred {{[-u|--remove]}} {{path/to/file}}

Overwrite a file 100 times, add a final overwrite with zeros, remove the file after overwriting it, and show verbose progress on the screen:

shred {{[-vzu|--verbose --zero --remove]}} {{[-n|--iterations]}} 100 {{path/to/file}}

Code Snippets

Overwrite a file

shred {{path/to/file}}

Overwrite a file and show progress on the screen

shred {{[-v|--verbose]}} {{path/to/file}}

Overwrite a file, leaving zeros instead of random data

shred {{[-z|--zero]}} {{path/to/file}}

Overwrite a file a specific number of times

shred {{[-n|--iterations]}} {{25}} {{path/to/file}}

Overwrite a file and remove it

shred {{[-u|--remove]}} {{path/to/file}}

Context

tldr-pages: common/shred

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