GNU bug report logs - #38168
shred vs. SSD

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From: help-debbugs <at> gnu.org (GNU bug Tracking System)
To: Egmont Koblinger <egmont <at> gmail.com>
Subject: bug#38168: closed (Re: bug#38168: shred vs. SSD)
Date: Tue, 12 Nov 2019 01:02:03 +0000

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Your bug report

#38168: shred vs. SSD

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 38168 <at> debbugs.gnu.org.

-- 
38168: http://debbugs.gnu.org/cgi/bugreport.cgi?bug=38168
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: Egmont Koblinger <egmont <at> gmail.com>
Cc: 38168-done <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: Re: bug#38168: shred vs. SSD
Date: Mon, 11 Nov 2019 17:01:07 -0800

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Thanks for mentioning this. I installed the attached patch to fix the problems 
that you mentioned, except that I didn't add a section on storage media, data 
remanence, and data forensics (partly because a lot of this stuff is secret).

If someone would like to contribute text in that area, it would be a good thing 
to have (if only to discourage even more users from using 'shred' :-). In the 
meantime I'll take the liberty of closing the bug report.

[0001-shred-modernize-documentation.patch (text/x-patch, attachment)]

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From: Egmont Koblinger <egmont <at> gmail.com>
To: bug-coreutils <at> gnu.org
Subject: shred vs. SSD
Date: Mon, 11 Nov 2019 10:36:12 +0100

Hi,

shred's man and info pages devote several paragraphs to explain "a
very important assumption: that the file system overwrites data in
place."

However, they don't mention that the underlying storage also has to
meet this criterium. In particular, today's widely used SSD drives are
known to perform wear leveling, i.e. rearrange the blocks as they
please.

I think shred's documentation should devote a section to storage media, too.

(On a side note, the man and info pages are slightly out of sync. E.g.
the info page mentions BFS and NTFS as journaling file systems, the
man page doesn't.)

thanks a lot,
egmont

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