---
name: "ecryptfs-rewrite-file"
section: "1"
platform: "linux"
package: "ecryptfs-utils"
version: "111-9"
release: "Arch Linux 2026-11-01"
platforms: ["linux"]
url: "https://new.carta.tech/ecryptfs-rewrite-file"
---

# ecryptfs-rewrite-file(1)

force a file to be rewritten (reencrypted) in the lower filesystem

## NAME

ecryptfs-rewrite-file - force a file to be rewritten (reencrypted) in the lower filesystem

## SYNOPSIS

**ecryptfs-rewrite-file \[file1\] \[file2\] \[file3\] ...**

## DESCRIPTION

This script takes one or more files/directories/symlinks as arguments, moves each of them to a temporary file, and then moves them back to the original name.  This causes the file to be rewritten (and reencrypted) in the lower filesystem.

This script may be combined with [**find**(1)](/find/1.md) and [**xargs**(1)](/xargs/1.md) to rewrite an entire eCryptfs mountpoint, unmount, and sync:

  find . -xdev -print0 \| xargs -r -0 /usr/bin/ecryptfs-rewrite-file\
   ecryptfs-umount-private\
   sync

It is advised that this script is executed in runlevel 1 or 3, to avoid simultanteous writes and race conditions with targeted files.

**USING THIS SCRIPT WHILE GNOME, KDE, OR OTHER APPLICATIONS ARE RUNNING MAY CAUSE DATA LOSS.**

## SEE ALSO

- [**find**(1)](/find/1.md), [**xargs**(1)](/xargs/1.md), [**ecryptfs-umount-private**(1)](/ecryptfs-umount-private/1.md), [**sync**(1)](/sync/1.md)

  - *http://ecryptfs.org/*

  ## AUTHOR

This manpage was written by Dustin Kirkland \<kirkland@ubuntu.com\> for Ubuntu systems (but may be used by others).  Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document under the terms of the GNU General Public License, Version 2 or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation.

On Debian and Ubuntu systems, the complete text of the GNU General Public License can be found in /usr/share/common-licenses/GPL.