read() on a deleted file

[Fasihullah Askiri]

Hi

Sorry for the confusion caused. I just realized that I was using fread
and not read. By "shred", I meant the /usr/bin/shred program which
overwrites a file with junk. I was getting stale result because of the
buffering at fread.

Thanks again for the responses.

On Jan 4, 2008 2:15 AM, David Schwartz <davids at webmaster.com> wrote:
>
> > This is what I understand now, if I delete the file, the kernel
> > guarantees that the file data is preserved till the last reference (in
> > the form of an open filehandle maybe) lingers. If I shred the file,
> > the read succeeds till the buffering is done.
>
> Actually, you can't delete a file while there are references to it. You can
> remove it from its directory, which reduces the reference count by one, but
> that's it. That's why the system call in UNIX is called "unlink" rather than
> "delete".
>
> A file is automatically deleted when its reference count goes to zero.
> Putting a file in a directory adds one to its reference count. Opening a
> file adds one.
>
> > This, however sounds wierd to me, what we are essentially saying is
> > that the open/read might not return the latest data!!!! AFAIK the
> > buffer cache/inode cache that the kernel maintains is refreshed as
> > soon the file is modified. Please clarify.
>
> It's impossible to clarify unless you tell us more precisely what you are
> doing. For example, you use the term "shred", but that can mean way more
> than one thing. Also, when you talk about "reading" a file, that could mean
> the "read" system call, but it could also mean the "fread" library function.
>
> DS
>
>
>



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