---
name: "gitwipe"
section: "1"
platform: "linux"
package: "gnuit"
version: "4.9.5-5"
release: "Debian 13 (Trixie)"
platforms: ["linux"]
url: "https://new.carta.tech/gitwipe"
---

# gitwipe(1)

An utility for wiping files

## NAME

gitwipe - An utility for wiping files

## SYNOPSIS

**gitwipe** *file ...*

## DESCRIPTION

This manual page documents briefly the **gitwipe** command.

**gitwipe** is an utility for wiping files.  It overwrites the file contents with a random sequence of numbers and then calls \`sync'().

Note that **gitwipe** does **not** remove the wiped file since (under \`Linux' at least) the \`sync'() system call might return before actually writing the new file contents to disk.  Removing the file might be dangerous because some file systems can detect that the blocks in the removed wiped file are no longer used and never write them back to disk in order to improve performance.  It is up to you to remove the file(s) at a later moment.

**gitwipe** is part of the GNU Interactive Tools.

## SEE ALSO

[**gitfm**(1)](/gitfm/1.md)

**gitwipe** and **gitfm** are documented fully by *GNU Interactive Tools*, available via the Info system.

## BUGS

Please send bug reports to:\
 *gnuit-dev@gnu.org*

## AUTHORS

*Tudor Hulubei \<tudor@cs.unh.edu\>*\
 *Andrei Pitis \<pink@pub.ro\>*\
 *Ian Beckwith \<ianb@erislabs.net\> (Current maintainer)*