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



NAME
       null, zero - data sink

DESCRIPTION
       Data written on a null or zero special file(1,n) is discarded.

       Reads  from  the  null  special file(1,n) always return end of file(1,n), whereas
       reads from zero always return \0 characters.

       null and zero are typically created by:

              mknod(1,2) -m 666 /dev/null c 1 3
              mknod(1,2) -m 666 /dev/zero c 1 5
              chown(1,2) root:mem /dev/null /dev/zero


NOTES
       If these devices are not writable and readable for all users(1,5), many pro-
       grams will act strange.

FILES
       /dev/null
       /dev/zero

SEE ALSO
       chown(1,2)(1), mknod(1,2)(1)



Linux                             1992-11-21                           NULL(4)