Hello,

I think I found a very serious bug with shred.

Scientific Linux SL release 4.1 (Beryllium)
Kernel 2.6.9-42.0.2.EL on an i686

This is what I did (as root):

cd /mirror_disk/sauvegarde/data
time find . -exec shred -n 3 -z -u  {} \;

on a directory of ~ 14 Gb in a 1 Tb firewire external disk
mounted on /mirror_disk/

The command did what I expected but I discovered that several 
other files in other partitions were *EMPTIED* !!!

For example, among others:

cd /; find . -type f -size 0  -printf " %t %s " -print

 Sat Nov 11 01:11:28 2006 0 ./usr/bin/i386-redhat-linux-c++
 Sat Nov 11 01:11:28 2006 0 ./usr/bin/i386-redhat-linux-g++
 Sat Nov 11 01:11:00 2006 0 ./usr/bin/metacity
 Sat Nov 11 01:11:28 2006 0 ./usr/bin/gcc
 Sat Nov 11 01:11:28 2006 0 ./usr/bin/c++
 Sat Nov 11 01:11:00 2006 0 ./usr/bin/konqueror
 Sat Nov 11 01:11:28 2006 0 ./usr/bin/i386-redhat-linux-gcc
 Sat Nov 11 01:11:30 2006 0 ./usr/bin/info
 Sat Nov 11 01:11:28 2006 0 ./usr/bin/g++
 Sat Nov 11 01:11:30 2006 0 ./usr/bin/vim
 Sat Nov 11 01:10:59 2006 0 ./usr/bin/gconftool-2
 Sat Nov 11 01:10:59 2006 0 ./usr/bin/scp

and even worse on an NFS file system monted from a SUN.

5 files were emptied.

As I would not believe that, I just reproduce it after disconecting
my network cable, remonting the partitions read only exept / ,
fill the firewire external disk and shred it again.

I found more file emptied in / for example :

 Tue Nov 14 20:58:21 2006 0 ./usr/lib/liblapack.a
 Wed Nov 15 00:01:56 2006 0 ./usr/bin/lpr.cups
 Tue Nov 14 20:42:28 2006 0 ./usr/bin/i386-redhat-linux-c++
 Wed Nov 15 00:01:56 2006 0 ./usr/bin/cancel.cups
 Tue Nov 14 20:42:28 2006 0 ./usr/bin/i386-redhat-linux-g++
 Tue Nov 14 20:42:29 2006 0 ./usr/bin/ssh
 Wed Nov 15 00:01:56 2006 0 ./usr/bin/lpstat.cups
 Tue Nov 14 20:42:01 2006 0 ./usr/bin/metacity
 Wed Nov 15 00:01:56 2006 0 ./usr/bin/lp.cups
 Tue Nov 14 20:42:28 2006 0 ./usr/bin/gcc
 Tue Nov 14 20:42:28 2006 0 ./usr/bin/c++
 Tue Nov 14 20:42:01 2006 0 ./usr/bin/konqueror
 Tue Nov 14 20:42:28 2006 0 ./usr/bin/i386-redhat-linux-gcc
 Tue Nov 14 20:42:28 2006 0 ./usr/bin/info
 Tue Nov 14 20:42:28 2006 0 ./usr/bin/g++
 Wed Nov 15 00:01:55 2006 0 ./usr/bin/rmail.sendmail
 Tue Nov 14 20:42:29 2006 0 ./usr/bin/vim
 Tue Nov 14 20:42:00 2006 0 ./usr/bin/gconftool-2
 Wed Nov 15 00:01:56 2006 0 ./usr/bin/lprm.cups
 Tue Nov 14 20:42:00 2006 0 ./usr/bin/scp
 Wed Nov 15 00:01:56 2006 0 ./usr/bin/lpq.cups
 

strange enough, the same files have been re-emptied again and I can observe
that the corresponding man file have also been emptied for example :

/usr/bin/vim
and
/usr/share/man/man1/vim.1.gz

I dit it 3 times with the same results the third time with the USB interface
instead of the firewire one.

Finaly, I had to re-instal 27 packages which were corrupted.

Is shred the culprit or the kernel or ?

-- 

                 Best regards,

                               Robert FRANCHISSEUR

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