Hey all. I have some random weird questions about /dev/null...

1. What happens if I were to move a file I don't want anymore to /dev/null as the root user? Does it get deleted, or just kind of float around somewhere other than it's original location?
2. Does /dev/null ever get full?

Definition: /dev/null: On UNIX, this is a virtual-file that can be written to. Data written to this file gets discarded. It is similar to the file call NUL on Windows machines. Key point: When rooting a machine, intruders will often redirect logging to /dev/null For example, the command ln -s /dev/null .bash_history will cause the system to stop logging bash commands. Culture: In the vernacular, means much the same thing as black hole. Typical usage: if you don't like what I have to say, please direct your comments to /dev/null.

Source: Hacking-Lexicon / Linux Dictionary V 0.16
http://www.tldp.org/LDP/Linux-Dictio...tml/index.html
Author: Binh Nguyen linuxfilesystem(at)yahoo(dot)com(dot)au

Ah now I get it...so basically what your saying is if I were to do this:

I would do no harm to my system or hard drive at all?

Yes, you could do that and cause no harm to your drive at all. You could also use rm uselessfile or shred useless file

If you don't have root permission you would preceed these two commands with sudo.

Got it. Thanks for the help

Moving a file to /dev/null can replace /dev/null by the file!

Correct. The null device is not a directory, so "mv uselessfile /dev/null" will overwrite /dev/null with uselessfile. The null device is mostly used to discard output you don't want. The command below will redirect errors on the console to /dev/null

That I did not know...Knowing that now, I'll be sure not to send anything to /dev/null except the console errors...thanks for the warning