GNU bug report logs - #21502
'shred' -NUMBER not recognised

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Package: coreutils;

Reported by: Nick Rose <nkre5 <at> yahoo.co.uk>

Date: Thu, 17 Sep 2015 04:57:01 UTC

Severity: normal

Done: Paul Eggert <eggert <at> cs.ucla.edu>

Bug is archived. No further changes may be made.

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Report forwarded to bug-coreutils <at> gnu.org:
bug#21502; Package coreutils. (Thu, 17 Sep 2015 04:57:01 GMT) Full text and rfc822 format available.
Acknowledgement sent to Nick Rose <nkre5 <at> yahoo.co.uk>:
New bug report received and forwarded. Copy sent to bug-coreutils <at> gnu.org. (Thu, 17 Sep 2015 04:57:01 GMT) Full text and rfc822 format available.

Message #5 received at submit <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Nick Rose <nkre5 <at> yahoo.co.uk>
To: "bug-coreutils <at> gnu.org" <bug-coreutils <at> gnu.org>
Subject: 'shred' -NUMBER not recognised
Date: Wed, 16 Sep 2015 23:23:17 +0000 (UTC)

[Message part 1 (text/plain, inline)]
Ostensible discrepancy between 'shred' and its documentation.
(shred (GNU coreutils) 8.23 on Xubuntu 14.10)
On the 'shred' info page:
‘-NUMBER’
‘-n NUMBER’
‘--iterations=NUMBER’
     By default, ‘shred’ uses 3 passes of overwrite.  You can reduce
     this to save time, or increase it if you think it’s appropriate.
     After 25 passes all of the internal overwrite patterns will have
     been used at least once.

If I try the '-NUMBER' method to specify number of iterations:

$ shred -1 file
shred: invalid option -- '1'
Try 'shred --help' for more information.
The other two methods for specifying number of iterations work.

[Message part 2 (text/html, inline)]
Reply sent to Paul Eggert <eggert <at> cs.ucla.edu>:
You have taken responsibility. (Thu, 17 Sep 2015 07:41:02 GMT) Full text and rfc822 format available.
Notification sent to Nick Rose <nkre5 <at> yahoo.co.uk>:
bug acknowledged by developer. (Thu, 17 Sep 2015 07:41:02 GMT) Full text and rfc822 format available.

Message #10 received at 21502-done <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Paul Eggert <eggert <at> cs.ucla.edu>
To: Nick Rose <nkre5 <at> yahoo.co.uk>, 21502-done <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: Re: bug#21502: 'shred' -NUMBER not recognised
Date: Thu, 17 Sep 2015 00:40:40 -0700

[Message part 1 (text/plain, inline)]
Thanks for reporting that -- it has been a bug in the manual for sixteen years! 
 I installed the attached patch.


[0001-shred-don-t-document-NUMBER-option.patch (text/plain, attachment)]
bug archived. Request was from Debbugs Internal Request <help-debbugs <at> gnu.org> to internal_control <at> debbugs.gnu.org. (Thu, 15 Oct 2015 11:24:04 GMT) Full text and rfc822 format available.
This bug report was last modified 9 years and 309 days ago.

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