-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hello jps@monad.semcor.com (Jack P. Starrantino) and cypherpunks@toad.com ...

I think you can work this way if you open the file for read/write access, although I'd be more inclined to take the file name into the directory and then walk the inodes.

Yuck! Opening the file for read/write should be ok on all filesystems where walking the inodes is doable and ok, and will be more portable. Walking the inodes has the advantage that it won't run out of disk space, but I suspect confidential files with holes will be rare. There's no automatic rm that will also delete all backups of the file. (You are keeping backups, aren't you?) Hope I'm making sense... Jiri - -- If you want an answer, please mail to <jirib@cs.monash.edu.au>. On sweeney, I may delete without reading! PGP 463A14D5 (but it's at home so it'll take a day or two) PGP EF0607F9 (but it's at uni so don't rely on it too much) -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: 2.6.2i iQCVAwUBMNOcVixV6mvvBgf5AQGrkwQAnyNO9i+U470nlTcjJbu6lTQUNw+8b24L 2rZC/niE0WV9xFXYEQHA8cmFJrpLqp8OcfxZVLU+aYJ6sD2z3ehM5nlT7yoSTxXk /GSp1DgW8rfu19Ovf7xAe6CBt7/NNo/WNsd6pTev648Dj3tdNBCkqf8IlSu/22qa FgvShjjz8+Q= =6ZDm -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----