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       Wipe - File Wiping Utility V0.1 for OS/2 

      (c) 1995 Ramin Darakhschani <ramin@ping.at>

           * * *  THIS IS A BETA RELEASE * * *

BETA NOTE:

I have tested this releases code and used the debugger enough as to
believe it is reasonably stable. There are lots of checks, on almost
every function call in fact, which make this release be bulky and
work slow.
Please drop me a note by email stating what you think about Wipe, and
telling me about anything which you would like to have in a future 
release. User Feedback will allow me to make this program more suited
toyour needs.


Synopsis:

This program will overwrite and remove the specified file(s) from your disk 
forever. Each sector of the file(s) will be overwritten with character 0xF6 
and it's bit-reverse (0x09) three times before resetting it's size to zero
bytes and unlinking it.

0xF6 is character written into sectors by FORMAT when initializing a disk.


Why use this program ?

The normal DEL function of OS/2 will only unlink() the file(s) deleted from
its directory entry, so if you have an appropriate tool it is still possible
to recover the contents of the so deleted file(s), even on HPFS partitions.
It is also possible to recover contents from formatted disks if special hardware
to scan disk and reconstruct magnetic signals is available, which is what some
'law enforcement' agencies or very smart spies would do to get their hands on
your sensitive data.

If you are really paranoid or have reasons to think that the governments thugs,
spies, crooks or other unpleasant existences are after your data, then you 
should consider using this tool.

While I don't guarantee that using this tool will make it absolutely impossible
for somebody with enough resources to recover your data, it will surely make 
their job much harder. If you want your data to be REALLY unrecoverable, think 
about degaussing or burning your disks.

- - From the PGP Manual:
    It's personal.  It's private.  And it's no one's business but yours.



Usage : WIPE [[-s] [-n] file1 [file...]] , where

         When called without arguments you get a short usage help.

  -s     Silent mode. Don't ask 'Are you sure (Y/N) ?' before wiping files. 

  file(s)   the file(s) to be processed.



Supported and tested features:
- - Longnames, in fact, anything that is syntactically correct.
  Exception: Files CANNOT begin with a dash '-' or slash '/'

- - Any number of files on commandline (30 tested)

- - Any order of the arguments will work.

- - File specifiers can be up to 255 characters long each including path and 
  drive names.

- - Files can be anywhere, including network drives. I haven't tested files on
  network drives but think it should work as long as you have access rights 
  to the files. Feedback on this issue is welcome.

Unsupported features (To do / coming soon) :
- - Input redirection, meaning you can't take the files from a file list ,
  like in `wipe -s < responsefile'. This is planned for a future release.

- - Extended overwrite mode. Overwrite the file 3 times with 8 different patterns
  before deleting.

- - Selectively using the cache or not. Wipe does currently bypass the file 
  system's cache when writing to files, which makes it slow.

- - Verbosity to allow you to see what is beeing done. Currently, you will only
  get error messages delivered to stderr.

- - Use of wildcards. This will come soon. You can type any number of files on 
  the commandline instead.

- - Extended Attributes. This release will only process the file itself. 
  EA support is planned for a future release

- - Subdirectory recursion is not yet implemented.

- - Zapping the f-node of the files should also be done.
  Does anybody know the API calls to work on the fnodes ?

- - Any wishes ?


Bugs:
- - The bit patterns used for overwrites almost surely don't correspond to DOD 
  standard. I invented them. Does anybody have an idea where to get the DoD 
  specs for file wiping ?

- - The code is sloppy. I have never learnt to program. I bought the IBM compiler 
  and am having lots of fun learning to do so.

- - Did I miss anything ?



License :

You may use Wipe on ONE machine only at any time
You may use Wipe for your personal and private purposes. 
You may NOT use Wipe in a commercial environment or for commercial purposes.
  If you do so, I will require you to register and pay a license fee.
You may NOT use Wipe in a military or law enforcement environment or for such 
  purposes. This includes military or law enforcement data processing 
  environments, machines used and/or owned by contractors to them or by 
  individuals working in any form or under any title (even for free) for 
  military or law enforcement agencies.
You may NOT distribute Wipe over MSN (Microsoft Network)
You may NOT bundle Wipe with any product from Microsoft
You may distribute Wipe as you see fit, as long as the archive and the files
  within remain intact and unaltered, and you don't charge more than five (5,00) 
  US dollars for its distribution.
Wipe is shareware and may be included in shareware CDROM compilations.

You are not allowed to rent, sell, license or reverse-engineer this program.

As stated, you are granted a limited RIGHT TO USE, and nothing else, of Wipe.

All other rights on the program and its code, including ownership, 
remain my own.



Disclaimer and Warning :

Wipe will destroy files in such a manner as to make them unrecoverable.
DO NOT use it if you have any doubts about the data you are destroying.
I do NOT guarantee that this program (Wipe.exe) is useful in anyway or
will help you avoid losses or make profit of any kind. 
I will definitely NOT be held responsible for malicious use of Wipe.

You are getting this for FREE. Say thanks before anything else !



Contacting the Author :

COMMENTS & SUGGESTIONS are always welcome.

Write me a note at <ramin@ping.at> if you found a bug or would like 
improvements. You can also send me snailmail to

        Ramin Darakhschani-Mayer
        Schulgasse 63/22
        A-1180 WIEN
        AUSTRIA - EUROPA



REGISTERING

I will not ask you to register this beta release. A future release will 
almost certainly have a small price tag on it to afford the financing
of all the pizza used up in this project.

I would really like to get lots of feedback on this program, and will ask 
you to update your copy as soon as I make a new release available.


Where to find Wipe ?

I will distribute new releases to following site:

INTERNET:
ftp://ftp.leo.org
ftp://ftp-os2.cdrom.com

FIDONET:
LA BAMBA BBS     2:310/14     (+43 1) 618 6511

New releases will be announced on Usenet to
  alt.2600.moderated
  comp.os.os2.announce


What follows is my PGP public key. It's KeyID is 9E6ADB11 and it is signed.
You can get an unsigned version from well-known PGP keyservers on the net.

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