NAME

       null, zero - data sink

DESCRIPTION

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

       Reads  from the null special file always return end of file (i.e., read(2) returns 0), whereas reads from
       zero always return bytes containing zero (\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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