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Device file abstraction vs Programming/ASCII constant

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/dev/null is a file system abstraction of a data sink in Unix-style operating systems, following a producer/consumer pattern.

NULL (sometimes listed as null or NUL) is a constant in many referring to a pointer construct with points to nothing in memory or within a namespace. Also, NUL is the constant mapped to 0 in the official ASCII table and many other character encodings.

NUL linking to /dev/null? Or is size of the /dev/null article the issue? Maybe a 'Data sink' article? The concept of data sink does apply to other parts of computing too (networking, synchronous systems).

--CrixDev (talk) 14:51, 5 October 2011 (UTC)[reply]

In Windows NT, it works somewhat like UNIX, but with a bit of DOS compatibility added in. Like UNIX, NT has a single root directory, but called \ instead of /. (NT's root directory can be considered to be on a RAM disk.) NT's equivalent to /dev is the \Device directory. Inside it is the \Device\Null device node, which works identically to UNIX's /dev/null.

The Win32 function for opening files, CreateFile, has a DOS compatibility layer. It translates filenames from DOS format into the native NT format. DOS devices are located in the NT directory \??. When opening the special file NUL:, CreateFile actually translates your request into opening the NT native file \??\NUL. \??\NUL is a symbolic link to \Device\Null.

[1] is a great program for exploring the native NT file system.

--- Myria 07:54, 22 November 2005 (UTC)[reply]

Compare to GUI OS Trash cans?

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How is dev/null different than a trashcan in today's modern OSs? --Navstar 21:01, 20 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]

How is it similar? It has nothing to do with storing "deleted" files.--Prosfilaes 13:23, 23 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]
Trash cans store recently deleted files, /dev/null stores nothing. 84.182.124.245 (talk) 12:41, 10 April 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Link to this article

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I found that it is somewhat difficult to link to this article because of the leading slash. Also, the article is technically a subpage, right?

The following doesn't work right because the leading slash makes the link relative to the current page (or is it the top-level page?):

[[/dev/null]] → produces → /dev/null

I was successfully able to link the the article using a leading colon in the link href:

[[:/dev/null]] → produces → /dev/null

Now I can't find a way to link to the talk page of the article!

[[Talk:/dev/null]] → produces → Talk:/dev/null

[[Talk::/dev/null]] → produces → [[Talk::/dev/null]]

[[:Talk:/dev/null]] → produces → Talk:/dev/null

—The preceding unsigned comment was added by Blooper Glooper (talkcontribs) 02:03, 4 February 2007 (UTC1)

Why do you think that [[Talk:/dev/null]] and [[:Talk:/dev/null]] do not work? (The wiki engine automatically turns self-links into bolded text. See Help:Self link.) —Tobias Bergemann 08:39, 4 February 2007 (UTC)[reply]
You could just use the redirect: /dev/null --Closedmouth 14:46, 1 June 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Musings on the Characteristics of the Null Device

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full/not full? dimensions of dev/null - 0 or approaching infinity? is the null device equally available to an infinite number of simultaneously executing threads? User:.digamma/null —Preceding unsigned comment added by 72.82.74.18 (talk) 22:11, 11 March 2008 (UTC)[reply]

It's never full (like a black hole), and each thread can access it. 84.182.124.245 (talk) 12:41, 10 April 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Removal of Apple advertisment from article

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Powerbook G4 advert was completely irrelevant and planted by Mac a fanboi. 17:38, 23 February 2009 [User:79.73.196.40]]

Energy can be neither created nor destroyed...

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when electrical current powers the computer, data is written, when that data is deleted, the energy escapes via /dev/null (among other ways)

electricity converted into bits. removed bits go to dev/null -- the hardware has a metal device that dumps heat from /dev/null —Preceding unsigned comment added by 75.18.203.236 (talk) 06:41, 25 September 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Rename and expand to non-Unix devices

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I suggest renaming and expanding the scope of this page from /dev/null to Null device. I think it is better to use English rather than computer codes and abbreviations. Also this would avoid all the Media Wiki subpage technicalities mentioned above. Once renamed, then I would suggest merging NUL:, which looks suspiciously like a WP:content fork. Vadmium (talk, contribs) 03:36, 13 January 2013 (UTC).[reply]

  • Comment: Vadmium, while I agree they're the same topic so in theory should be merged, the merge target is a problem - we have a nice set of unix device names that are in common use so I wouldn't merge to Null device. I'm guessing the opposite is problematic too. I've added hatnotes in the meantime. Widefox; talk 18:50, 24 September 2013 (UTC)[reply]
    • "we have a nice set of unix device names that are in common use" — are you referring to the fact that we have articles named /dev/random and /dev/full? It does not matter, article titles are decided on an individual basis.
    I agree with User:Vadmium. I would even suggest merging with /dev/zero, because it is not substantially different. Keφr 08:14, 28 February 2014 (UTC)[reply]

I also agree with User:Vadmium. /dev/zero is however conceptually different and shouldn't be merged in.WinTakeAll (talk) 04:25, 1 March 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Reference in Vampire the Masquerade

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Nothing of major importance, just might be a nice addition to the references. In the PC game "Vampire: the Masquerade - Redemption", there is a non playable character called Dev/Null, a crazy (not just) computer genius Vampire. Sadly he isn't mentioned on the Wikipedia site of the game, but more about him can be found here:

http://whitewolf.wikia.com/wiki/Dev/Null

--Sephtan (talk) 02:14, 14 July 2014 (UTC)[reply]

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