[Bug-ddrescue] Re: Using ddrescue for the opposite purpose?

[Michael Haardt]

> GNU ddrescue is designed for the safe rescue of data, and will give up 
> if the destination file has errors. I think a better solution would be 
> to use a program like 'wipe' 
> (http://directory.fsf.org/security/misc/wipe.html).

ddrescue employs a log to store which sectors could not be read and will
not get confused about the file position upon read errors.  It can use
the log to retry previously unreadable sectors without going again over
already read sectors.

Wipe focuses on using suitable patterns and using fsync or O_SYNC to
really write them to the media, but that's it.

I am looking for a program that:

employs a log to store which sectors could not be erased and will not
get confused about the file position upon write errors.  It should use
the log to retry previously unerasable sectors without going again over
already erased sectors.

Getting the data off the drive and erasing it when the job is done, is
remarkably similar, and ddrescue already does a good job on the first.

Michael