Brain fart: no format option on a pen drive pop-up menu?

[Tim]

On Sun, 2011-08-28 at 08:18 -0500, Aaron Konstam wrote:
> But then what do we say the function of rm is. Does it erase the files
> that are its arguments. It also does not erase the file anymore than
> format does. 

It removes the file, or directory, from the directory *listing* (the
list of what's on the disc).  It doesn't actually remove the file (or
directory).

The man page doesn't hide the fact that the file can be easily
recovered.  It even goes as far as to recommend a way around that, by
using shred.  And the man file for shred explicitly tells you that shred
may no-longer be able to do what you want, because it relies of the file
system working in a particular way (which it no-longer does).

The whole point is don't muddy the waters by dumbing things down to
accommodate fools.  Formatting is formatting, not erasing; so call it
formatting not erasing.  Erasing is something else, an entirely
different process, and managed in an entirely different way.

-- 
[tim at localhost ~]$ uname -r
2.6.27.25-78.2.56.fc9.i686

Don't send private replies to my address, the mailbox is ignored.  I
read messages from the public lists.