lamy@ai.toronto.edu (Jean-Francois Lamy) (12/01/88)
At least half a dozen times now, we have observed /dev/null mutating into something different. One day we found /dev/null had a non-zero size. Somehow programs took a very long time reading it... Another common mutation is to change to /dev/drum's major number. Then, the next morning, the script that rolls the logs innocently copies /dev/null to each log. From 80 Megs free in /var to 0 in a few seconds flat... These mutations have been seen on two different Sun 4s with RF3220 controllers, both running 4.0. Maybe this should go to some science-fiction mailing list :-). Jean-Francois Lamy lamy@ai.utoronto.ca, uunet!ai.utoronto.ca!lamy AI Group, Department of Creative Solutions, University of Toronto