Can't I get a /dev/one?

[Jim Higson]

On Wednesday 14 July 2004 10:23, Jim Higson wrote:
> On Wednesday 14 July 2004 05:34, William M. Quarles wrote:
> > Jim Higson wrote:
> > > On Wednesday 14 July 2004 00:02, William M. Quarles wrote:
> > >>Okay, so there is a /dev/zero.  Shouldn't there be a /dev/one, too?  Is
> > >>there any way that I can fill a file or device full of ones?
> > >
> > > Btw, why do you want this?
> >
> > I guess that I should have said that from the beginning, so that I
> > wouldn't have to write this as frequently.
> >
> > I'm trying to fill a hard drive with all ones.  I know how to fill it
> > with all zeros:
>
> Well, yes - I got that bit. Actually, what I really wanted to know is why
> you would want to do that.
>
> If I knew why I could advise. For example if you are trying to securely
> erase the contents of the drive there's a program called shread, in the GNU
> coreutils (so you *will* have it!)
>
> try:
> man shread
>
> or just go ahead:
> shread /dev/hda
>
Oops, should be 'shred'.