ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

Srm (Unix)

SRM, which stands for Secure Removal, is a special command in Unix that helps ensure that your files are deleted in a way that makes it very difficult for anyone to recover them. When you delete a file on your computer, it's not actually completely gone. The computer just marks that space on its memory as "available" for new files to be stored in. This means that until new files overwrite that space, someone with the right tools might still be able to find and access your old files.

But with SRM, you can make sure that your deleted files are really gone. It does this by overwriting the space where the file was stored with random characters. It's kind of like taking a coloring book and scribbling all over the page with different colors, so that whatever was there before cannot be seen anymore.

SRM goes through multiple passes to overwrite the space, making it even more difficult for someone to recover the original file. It's like writing on the same page of the coloring book over and over again, with different colors each time. This makes it very hard for someone to make sense of what was originally there.

Once SRM has finished overwriting the space, it tells the computer that the file is no longer needed. This way, the computer can now use that space to store new files without worrying about the old file being recovered.

So, in simple terms, SRM is a special command that helps you delete files in a way that makes it very difficult for anyone to ever find or access those files again. It protects your privacy and ensures that your deleted files are really gone for good.