X-Spam-Check-By: sourceware.org Date: Thu, 1 Jun 2006 11:19:00 -0400 From: Christopher Faylor To: cygwin AT cygwin DOT com Subject: Re: bash: /dev/null: No such file or directory. Why is /dev/null implemented using the windows NUL device? Message-ID: <20060601151900.GC31570@trixie.casa.cgf.cx> Reply-To: cygwin AT cygwin DOT com Mail-Followup-To: cygwin AT cygwin DOT com References: Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline In-Reply-To: User-Agent: Mutt/1.5.11 Mailing-List: contact cygwin-help AT cygwin DOT com; run by ezmlm Precedence: bulk List-Unsubscribe: List-Subscribe: List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: , Sender: cygwin-owner AT cygwin DOT com Mail-Followup-To: cygwin AT cygwin DOT com Delivered-To: mailing list cygwin AT cygwin DOT com On Thu, Jun 01, 2006 at 10:57:30AM +0100, Robert McKay wrote: >I guess my next question is.. how hard would it be to simply replace >the cygwin /dev/null with one that doesn't use the NUL device? If I >could remove the /dev/null device and replace it with a second >/dev/zero device that would probably fix 99% of my problems as most >things are only trying to write to /dev/null, not read from it. If I >could write my own /dev/null device that just implemented a couple of >do-nothing read/write syscalls without using the windows NUL service >that would be even better. Personally, I would be rather concerned if my Windows system started dropping devices like "NUL" and I'd wonder what else was wrong with it. I don't think modifying cygwin to deal with the breakage is really in your best interest. I think getting to the bottom of the problem is what you need to do. Maybe you have a virus? Or maybe one of those system doctor programs will be able to diagonose what's going on. cgf -- Unsubscribe info: http://cygwin.com/ml/#unsubscribe-simple Problem reports: http://cygwin.com/problems.html Documentation: http://cygwin.com/docs.html FAQ: http://cygwin.com/faq/