Re: Question about /dev/null

From: Chris F.A. Johnson (cfajohnson_at_gmail.com)
Date: 11/11/04 

Date: 11 Nov 2004 02:48:11 GMT

On 2004-11-11, Jeffrey Froman wrote:
> Thomas Keller wrote:
>
>> This might sound a bit stupid, but could somebody please explain the
>> purpose of such devices like /dev/null or /dev/zero to me?
>
> A use for /dev/null that hasn't been mentioned is to completely clean out a
> file without removing that file. This is sometimes handy for certain log
> files, for example:
>
> cat /dev/null > log.txt
>
> Leaves log.txt intact, but it is now empty.

    So do these, and /dev/null is not needed (nor any external
    command):

echo -n > log.txt
printf "" > log.txt
> log.txt 

-- 
    Chris F.A. Johnson                        http://cfaj.freeshell.org
    ===================================================================
    My code (if any) in this post is copyright 2004, Chris F.A. Johnson
    and may be copied under the terms of the GNU General Public License

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