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Null device there is a light
In some operating systems, the null device is a device file that discards all data written to it but reports that the write operation succeeded. This device is called /dev/null
on Unix or Unix-like systems, NUL:
or NUL
on DOS and CP/M, \Device\Null
on Windows NT, nul
on newer Windows systems, NIL:
on Amiga operating systems, and the NL:
on OpenVMS. In Windows Powershell, the equivalent is $null
. It provides no data to any process that reads from it, yielding EOF immediately. In IBM DOS/360, OS/360 (MFT, MVT), OS/390 and z/OS operating systems, such files would be assigned in JCL to DD DUMMY.
Contents
In programmer jargon, especially Unix jargon, it may also be called the bit bucket or black hole.
Null device triangular
Usage
The null device is typically used for disposing of unwanted output streams of a process, or as a convenient empty file for input streams. This is usually done by redirection.
The /dev/null
device is a special file, not a directory, so one cannot move a whole file or directory into it with the Unix mv
command. The rm
command is the proper way to delete files in Unix.