Removing files is easy; A simple “rm” on the file will do. But what if you want to be really sure no one is going to re-generate private data contained in a file you deleted? For those cases, you can use wipe, a secure command-line file deletion tool.

Unlike “rm”, which simply calls the “unlink” system call to de-allocate the blocks used by a file, wipe writes random data multiple times over your files before deleting them, making recovery much more difficult or even impossible. Wipe can work on files or on whole directory structures, recursively.

• Debian wipe Page
• Wipe Page

Keywords: Daily Debian, wipe, rm, secure deletion, security, privacy

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When I first tried Windows after using DOS for so long, I was horrified to learn that such a popular DOS program like XTree was not available for that operating system. A short while after that, I switched to Linux just to find that nothing resembling XTree existed there either. I ended up adapting to the new reality, but still missed the old program.

Some time ago, I learned of ytree, an “XTree Gold” clone for Linux. YTree is an almost perfect clone, and better in many ways. It removes the silly memory limitation of the original XTree and adds support for features not present in the old FAT filesystem, like permissions, long filenames, file ownership, etc.

Even though I use it far less than I used the old DOS XTree, ytree is a powerful addition to the growing arsenal of file managers available to the Linux user and sysadmin.

• Debian ytree Page
• YTree Page

Keywords: Daily Debian, ytree, XTree, Xtree Gold, file manager, Linux

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It’s hard to appreciate the value of a package like tuxpaint if you don’t have kids the right age.

Tuxpaint is a paint program for small kids. Besides the all too common features, present in most paint programs, it also has sounds, bubbly icons, large controls and many other qualities kids will surely enjoy. One of my kid’s favorite features is the “Stamp” action, where a figure from a library can be selected and pasted in many ways on the canvas.

If you download tuxpaint, make sure you also download the tuxpaint-default-stamps package, which increases the already large set of stamps available.

• Debian tuxpaint Page
• Tuxpaint Page

Keywords: Daily Debian, tuxpaint, paint, kids, educational, graphics, editor

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There are lots of options to edit text files under Linux. Religious issues aside, they’re all mature and offer a complete set of options and features, ranging from the trivial, to the obscure. But what do you use when you need to edit a binary file? bvi is the answer!

Bvi is a “vi-like” editor that works on binary files. With bvi, you can replace a character or entire strings inside binary files, search for strings in ASCII or binary, and even insert binary content. It’s vi all the way, except it talks binary.

Bvi is one of those little “must have” tools that may save your day, someday.

• Debian bvi Page
• bvi Page

Keywords: Daily Debian, editor, search, replace, binary, vi, emacs

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Gone were the days when I received two or three emails a day. Today, email comes in volume, and usually contains important information that needs to be kept for reference in the future.

Mairix is a command-line utility that allows you to perform searches in your emails. Unlike other solutions, mairix creates an index of your mail, so searches are almost instantaneous. Mairix was originally written with Maildir in mind, but it now supports Mbox and MH mail spools also.

• Debian mairix Page
• Mairix Page

Keywords: Daily Debian, mairix, search, mail, index, find

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