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

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From: help-debbugs <at> gnu.org (GNU bug Tracking System)
To: Nick Rose <nkre5 <at> yahoo.co.uk>
Subject: bug#21502: closed (Re: bug#21502: 'shred' -NUMBER not recognised)
Date: Thu, 17 Sep 2015 07:41:02 +0000

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Your bug report

#21502: 'shred' -NUMBER not recognised

which was filed against the coreutils package, has been closed.

The explanation is attached below, along with your original report.
If you require more details, please reply to 21502 <at> debbugs.gnu.org.

-- 
21502: http://debbugs.gnu.org/cgi/bugreport.cgi?bug=21502
GNU Bug Tracking System
Contact help-debbugs <at> gnu.org with problems

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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

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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)]

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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)

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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.

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