nwipe (1) - Linux Manuals

nwipe: securely erase disks

NAME

nwipe - securely erase disks

SYNOPSIS

nwipe [options] [device1] [device2] ...

DESCRIPTION

nwipe is a command that will securely erase disks using a variety of recognised methods. It is a fork of the dwipe command used by Darik's Boot and Nuke (dban). nwipe is included with partedmagic if want a quick and easy bootable CD version. nwipe was created out of a need to run the DBAN dwipe command outside of DBAN, in order to allow its use with any host distribution, thus giving better hardware support. It is essentially the same as dwipe, with a few changes:

- pthreads is used instead of fork

- The parted library is used to detect drives

- The code is designed to be compiled with gcc

- SIGUSR1 can be used to log the stats of the current wipe

OPTIONS

-V, --version

Prints the version number

-h, --help

Prints a help summary

--autonuke

If no devices have been specified on the command line, starts wiping all devices immediately. If devices have been specified, starts wiping only those specified devices immediately.

--sync

Open devices in sync mode

--nowait

Do not wait for a key before exiting (default is to wait).

--nosignals

Do not allow signals to interrupt a wipe (default is to allow).

--nogui

Do not show the GUI interface. Can only be used with the autonuke option. Nowait option is automatically invoked with the nogui option. SIGUSR1 can be used to retrieve the current wiping statistics.

--verify=TYPE

Whether to perform verification of erasure (default: last) off - Do not verify last - Verify after the last pass all - Verify every pass

-m, --method=METHOD

The wiping method (default: dodshort).

dod522022m / dod - 7 pass DOD 5220.22-M method

dodshort / dod3pass - 3 pass DOD method

gutmann - Peter Gutmann's Algorithm

ops2 - RCMP TSSIT OPS-II

random / prng / stream - PRNG Stream

zero / quick - Overwrite with zeros

-l, --logfile=FILE

Filename to log to. Default is STDOUT

-p, --prng=METHOD

PRNG option (mersenne|twister|isaac)

-r, --rounds=NUM

Number of times to wipe the device using the selected method (default: 1)

BUGS

Please see the sourceforge site for the latest list (http://nwipe.sourceforge.net)

AUTHOR

Nwipe was released by Andy Beverley <andy [at] andybev.com> as modified version of dwipe from DBAN by Darik Horn <dajhorn-dban [at] vanadac.com>.