1NULL(4)                    Linux Programmer's Manual                   NULL(4)
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NAME

6       null, zero - data sink
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DESCRIPTION

9       Data written on a null or zero special file is discarded.
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11       Reads  from  the  null  special file always return end of file, whereas
12       reads from zero always return \0 characters.
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14       null and zero are typically created by:
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16              mknod -m 666 /dev/null c 1 3
17              mknod -m 666 /dev/zero c 1 5
18              chown root:root /dev/null /dev/zero
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NOTES

22       If these devices are not writable and readable for all users, many pro‐
23       grams will act strangely.
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FILES

26       /dev/null
27       /dev/zero
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SEE ALSO

30       chown(1), mknod(1), full(4)
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34Linux                             1992-11-21                           NULL(4)