[PATCH] ext3: zero freed blocks

[Andreas Dilger]

On Sep 08, 2006  16:10 -0400, Theodore Tso wrote:
> Ideally, this wouldn't be done as a mount-time option, but rather only
> if the secure_delete flag is set on the file.  That way you don't do
> it for all files, but just those that need to be zeroed.

Agreed.

> The patch also has the potential danger that the data blocks are
> getting zeroed before the transaction which contains the unlink has
> committed.  There is therefore the risk that the system might crash
> after the blocks have been zero'ed, but before transaction has
> committed.  In that case, the file will still be there, but some or
> all of its contents will be zero'ed.  

That might be considered a feature.

Cheers, Andreas
--
Andreas Dilger
Principal Software Engineer
Cluster File Systems, Inc.