Dev-null

From Citizendium, the Citizens' Compendium

Jump to: navigation, search


This article is a stub and thus not approved.
Main Article
Talk
Related Articles  [?]
Bibliography  [?]
External Links  [?]
 
http://en.citizendium.org/wiki?title=Dev-null&printable=yes
This is a draft article, under development and not meant to be cited but you can help to improve it. These unapproved articles are subject to a disclaimer.
Due to technical limitations, this article uses an unusual title. It should be called  /dev/null.

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).
Retrieved from "http://en.citizendium.org/wiki/Dev-null"
Views
Personal tools