Re: shred command. Autodetect file type

[Alfred M. Szmidt]

   if --remove (-u) is specified.  The default is not to remove the
   files because it is common to operate on device files like
   /dev/hda, and those files usually should not be removed.  When
   operating on regular files, most people use the --remove option.

   Why not use the stat system call to find out what type of file
   we're dealing with, and then remove or not remove accordingly ?

That might cause a suprise in some cases.  It is better to have a
consitent behaviour than have different behaviours for different types
of files.