.TH SRM "14 March 2000" "Linux" "Linux User's Manual"
.SH NAME
srm \- securely remove files or directories
.SH SYNOPSIS
.B srm
[\fIOPTION\fR]...\fI FILE\fR...
.SH DESCRIPTION
.PP
.B srm
removes each specified file by overwriting, renaming, and truncating 
it before unlinking. This prevents other people from undeleting or 
recovering any information about the file from the command line.
.P
.BR srm ,
like every program that uses the getopt function to parse its
arguments, lets you use the
.I \-\-
option to indicate that all following arguments are non-options.  To
remove a file called `\-f' in the current directory, you could type
either
.RS
rm \-\- \-f
.RE
or
.RS
rm ./\-f
.SH OPTIONS
.PP
Remove (unlink) the FILE(s).
.TP
\fB\-d\fR, \fB\-\-directory\fR
ignored (for compatability with \fBrm(1)\fR)
.TP
\fB\-f\fR, \fB\-\-force\fR
ignore nonexistent files, never prompt
.TP
\fB\-i\fR, \fB\-\-interactive\fR
prompt before any removal
.TP
\fB\-r\fR, \fB\-R\fR, \fB\-\-recursive\fR
remove the contents of directories recursively
.TP
\fB\-s\fR, \fB\-\-simple\fR
only overwrite the file with a single pass of random data
.TP
\fB\-v\fR, \fB\-\-verbose\fR
explain what is being done
.TP
\fB\-\-help\fR
display this help and exit
.TP
\fB\-\-version\fR
output version information and exit
.SH NOTES
.PP 
.B srm
can not remove write protected files owned by another user, regardless of
the permissions on the directory containing the file.
.PP
Development and discussion of
.B srm
is carried out at http://sourceforge.net/project/?group_id=3297 which
is also accessible via http://srm.sourceforge.net.
.SH "SEE ALSO"
.B rm(1)