From abb2acc3a2390e3a0b72401a035bcaedccc4e17b Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Ben Wiederhake Date: Sat, 26 Apr 2025 18:37:35 +0200 Subject: [PATCH] shred: document simplified (better?) number of random passes --- docs/src/extensions.md | 4 ++++ 1 file changed, 4 insertions(+) diff --git a/docs/src/extensions.md b/docs/src/extensions.md index 3c051a1fa..6cd7b8b44 100644 --- a/docs/src/extensions.md +++ b/docs/src/extensions.md @@ -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.