NULL(4) 		   Linux Programmers Manual		      NULL(4)



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 pro
       grams will act strangely.

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

COLOPHON
       This  page  is  part of release 3.05 of the Linux man-pages project.  A
       description of the project, and information about reporting  bugs,  can
       be found at http://www.kernel.org/doc/man-pages/.



Linux				  1992-11-21			       NULL(4)