How to securely delete data after rm I deleted a file I meant to shred first. `$ rm somefile` instead of `$ shred somefile` `$ rm somefile` Is there a way to shred a file after 'rm'-ing it?

There is no way to properly securely erase a file with modern filesystems anymore, because the journal can still contain data and there is no reliable way to overwrite the journal.

You can try to disable journalling on the filesystem before deletion, but it won't do anything about data that may already be in the journal from writing the file and not erased. It's not entirely secure.

An ounce of prevention is a pound of cure; it's better to sidestep the issue of needing to `shred` the file entirely by encrypting your files using an encrypted volume to begin with. This sidesteps the need to actually `shred` your data, so long as you keep your key safe. In a pinch, you could just use `dd` to erase the entire volume securely by using a few passes of random data. If you don't want to use full-volume encryption, there is also file-level encryption in ext4 now.