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From Citizendium, the Citizens' Compendium

     The formal name of this article is /dev/null, but has been renamed due to technical limitations of the MediaWiki system.

In Unix (and Unix-like) operating systems, /dev/null is a character device file which discards all data written to it, and gives End of File (EOF) for all reads. Because it is located in the /dev, or device, directory, it is commonly known as the 'null device.' Synonyms include the 'black hole' and the 'bit bucket.'^[1] The null device is part of the standard Unix directory structure

It is commonly used to not show the output of programs (when they are run in scripts),^[1] and has oft been used in jokes and puns. For instance, the original BSD Daemon, drawn by Phil Foglio, featured a demon standing near a 'bit bucket.' Another usage would be on an Internet forum or IRC, when someone says something to the effect "Flames will be redirected to /dev/null."

References

1. ↑ ^1.0 1.1 "The Linux System Administrator's Guide, Chapter 5" (Retrieved 2007-04-15).