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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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