Talk:Null device

message: /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)
thread_title:  Device file abstraction vs Programming/ASCII constant 

message: 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.
 is a great program for exploring the native NT file system.
--- Myria 07:54, 22 November 2005 (UTC)
thread_title:  [[Windows NT]] 

message: How is dev/null different than a trashcan in today's modern OSs? --Navstar 21:01, 20 October 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: How is it similar? It has nothing to do with storing "deleted" files.--Prosfilaes 13:23, 23 October 2006 (UTC)

text: Trash cans store recently deleted files, /dev/null stores nothing. 84.182.124.245 (talk) 12:41, 10 April 2010 (UTC)
thread_title:  Compare to GUI OS Trash cans? 

message: 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 (talk • contribs) 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)
replies: text: You could just use the redirect: /dev/null --Closedmouth 14:46, 1 June 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  Link to this article 

message: 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)
replies: text: 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)
thread_title:  Musings on the Characteristics of the Null Device 

message: 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)
thread_title:  Energy can be neither created nor destroyed... 

message: 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)
thread_title:  Rename and expand to non-Unix devices 

message: 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)
thread_title:  Reference in Vampire the Masquerade 

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thread_title:  External links modified