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Date: Wed, 12 Apr 2006 12:37:32 -0400 (EDT)
From: Igor Peshansky <pechtcha AT cs DOT nyu DOT edu>
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Subject: Re: XP embedded
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On Wed, 12 Apr 2006, Christopher Faylor wrote:

> On Wed, Apr 12, 2006 at 12:05:04PM -0400, Igor Peshansky wrote:
> >On Wed, 12 Apr 2006, Christopher Faylor wrote:
> >>On Wed, Apr 12, 2006 at 07:43:33AM -0400, Jeff Lange wrote:
> >>>/dev/zero does work properly.  I changed line 68 in /etc/profile to use
> >>>/dev/zero instead of /dev/null and I no longer get the bash error on
> >>>start up.
> >
> >FWIW, /dev/zero is not always the proper substitution for /dev/null
> >(i.e., on input redirection, it will work differently).
> >
> >>>Perhaps the cygwin libraries should be modified so that if the windows
> >>>NUL device doesn't exist, it should use a different method.
> >>
> >>Sorry, no.  We already have enough special cases in the code.  We're
> >>not going to start adding more for XP Embedded.
> >
> >What I'm wondering is whether we need the Windows NUL device at all for
> >implementing /dev/null...  It's rather trivial[*] to implement one
> >without resorting to a Windows device.  Would there be any way of
> >distinguishing an emulation from the real NUL device?
>
> Wasn't that the point that the OP was making and to which I responded?

Umm, not quite.  The OP was proposing doing this conditionally, if NUL is
not present.  I was asking what the drawbacks of always using an emulated
null device were.

> I really do understand this stuff, Igor.
>
> When possible we always try to use the underlying device.  There are
> obvious benefits to doing things this way and there is no reason to
> abandon this policy for XP Embedded.

Ok, I understand the issue now.  Thanks for explaining it.
	Igor
-- 
				http://cs.nyu.edu/~pechtcha/
      |\      _,,,---,,_	    pechtcha AT cs DOT nyu DOT edu | igor AT watson DOT ibm DOT com
ZZZzz /,`.-'`'    -.  ;-;;,_		Igor Peshansky, Ph.D. (name changed!)
     |,4-  ) )-,_. ,\ (  `'-'		old name: Igor Pechtchanski
    '---''(_/--'  `-'\_) fL	a.k.a JaguaR-R-R-r-r-r-.-.-.  Meow!

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