The Tips - Mac Kung Fu - page 17

Using srm at the Command Line
Open Terminal (open Finder, select the Applications list, and then double-
click Terminal in the UTILITIES folder), and at the command prompt type SRM .
Then drag and drop from a Finder window onto the Terminal window the file
you'd like to eradicate. For example, if I wanted to delete FILE.TXT from my
desktop, after I'd dragged and dropped it onto the Terminal window, I'd see
the following:

SRM /USERS/KEIR/DESKTOP/FILE.TXT

Then hit RETURN to complete the command and eradicate the file. As with all
Terminal commands, if you see no output, then everything has worked fine.
Depending on the size of the file, deletion should take no more than a few
seconds.

The SRM command is intended to be a secure version of the basic RM Unix
command. Therefore, securely deleting a directory and its files can be achieved
with SRM-RF followed by the directory name and path. However, when deleting
many files in this way, it's useful to add the -V (verbose) switch so you get a
progress display and can confirm when each file is deleted. In other words,
the command for deleting a directory would be SRM-RFV .

Creating a GUI Secure Delete Tool
Using Automator you can create a service that appears on the menu that
appears whenever you right-click a file and offers a secure delete function
powered by SRM . Here's how to set it up:

1. Start Automator, which you'll find near the top of the Applications listing

within Finder. When it starts, click the Service icon within the Choose a
File Type For Your Document dialog box, and then click the Choose button.
If this dialog box doesn't appear, click File→New.

2. In the Automator program window, click in the search field above the

second column from the left, and type R U N SHELLSCRIPT . This will filter the list
beneath to one item, which you should drag to the right side of the pro-
gram window, dropping it over the area containing the text Drag Actions
or Files Here to Build Your Workflow.

3. At the top right of the window, alongside the heading Service Receives

Selected, you'll see two drop-down lists alongside each other: Text and
Any Application. Change the first to Files or Folders and the second (on
the right) to Finder.