Ubuntu manuals

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NAME

       null, zero - data sink

DESCRIPTION

       Data written on a null or zero special file is discarded.

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

       null and zero are typically created by:

              mknod -m 666 /dev/null c 1 3
              mknod -m 666 /dev/zero c 1 5
              chown root:root /dev/null /dev/zero

FILES

       /dev/null
       /dev/zero

NOTES

       If these devices are not writable and  readable  for  all  users,  many
       programs will act strangely.

SEE ALSO

       chown(1), mknod(1), full(4)

COLOPHON

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