/dev/null

dev null dev-null devnull English Alternative forms en dev null dev-null devnull Etymology From Unix operating systems, where /dev (the Unix directory containing device files) contains a null entry representing no device. Proper noun /dev/null en computing A device file, present in Unix and Unix-like operating systems such as Linux, that discards all data written to it and yields no output, always presenting as an empty file when read. en It's possible to suppress the compiler's warnings by redirecting standard error to /dev/null. en Computer Performance Evaluation Users Group 16th Meeting Harold Joseph Highland Luis F. Cabrera October 1980 Washington Government Printing Office National Bureau of Standards Special Publication 500-65 A Performance Evaluation Study of UNIX 235 https://books.google.com/books?id=igdRAAAAMAAJ&pg=RA4-PA235 To avoid problems when running the script, the output of man man was sent to /dev/null instead of sending it to a real terminal. This has the effect of discarding the already formatted text of the retrieved page. en UNIX System V Network Programming Stephen A. Rago 1993 Pearson 9780201563184 89 https://books.google.com/books?id=n1zwAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA89 [...] we reserve file descriptors 0, 1, and 2 by opening /dev/null and duplicating the file descriptor returned. /dev/null is a pseudo-driver that forces read to return 0 and write to return as if the entire amount requested had been written. This makes library routines that use file descriptors 0, 1, and 2 harmless. en Beginning Shell Scripting Eric Foster-Johnson John C. Welch; Micah Anderson 2005 John Wiley & Sons 9780764597916 263 https://books.google.com/books?id=dwIRERUpQPEC&pg=PA263 Continuing in the Unix tradition of treating everything as a file, you can redirect a command's output to the null file, /dev/null. The null file consumes all output sent to it, as if /dev/null is a black hole star. en Internet slang figuratively Nowhere; often suggests an intent to ignore specific correspondence. en September 17 1992 Douglas Meier dmeier@casbah.acns.nwu.edu Welfare Reform Idea 1992Sep17.064757.551@news.acns.nwu.edu talk.politics.misc http://groups.google.com/group/talk.politics.misc/msg/bab64b3f0c94e892 Thoughtful discussion and criticism is welcomed, but please send all flames to dev null. en December 18 1993 Carmien Stefan carmien@alumni.cs.Colorado.EDU RLP hosed CI7Gt6.DAo@Colorado.EDU alt.unix.wizards http://groups.google.com/group/alt.unix.wizards/msg/ed9a7a86921ca320 suddenly the RLP calls form atlanta apparently go to dev null. en January 17 2004 Ronald D. Edge InactiveX666@hotmail.com PayPal pyramid scam SDaOb.873$Ly6.642264@newshog.newsread.com news.admin.net-abuse.email http://groups.google.com/group/news.admin.net-abuse.email/msg/b251505768d9bc33 The email will explicitly state that you cannot reply to the email, it will go to dev null. Hypernyms en device file null device pseudodevice Coordinate terms en black hole bit bucket Further reading null device en Unix