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shred: document simplified (better?) number of random passes #7847

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Apr 26, 2025
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shred: document simplified (better?) number of random passes #7847

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4 changes: 4 additions & 0 deletions docs/src/extensions.md
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Expand Up @@ -97,3 +97,7 @@ Similar to the proc-ps implementation and unlike GNU/Coreutils, `uptime` provide
## `base32/base64/basenc`

Just like on macOS, `base32/base64/basenc` provides `-D` to decode data.

## `shred`

The number of random passes is deterministic in both GNU and uutils. However, uutils `shred` computes the number of random passes in a simplified way, specifically `max(3, x / 10)`, which is very close but not identical to the number of random passes that GNU would do. This also satisfies an expectation that reasonable users might have, namely that the number of random passes increases monotonically with the number of passes overall; GNU `shred` violates this assumption.
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