Where does a deleted file actually go?
Deleting a file can remove the name your computer uses to find it without immediately erasing every trace of its contents. In Linux, even the moment storage becomes available for reuse depends on links and whether a process still has the file open.
Questions you could explore
- What would “gone” mean to a user, a running program, and the storage device?
Start reading
- Linux man-pages projectunlink(2): Linux manual page
The Linux unlink documentation separates removing a name from releasing a file’s storage.
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