mullen@sdsu.UUCP (deborah mullen) (11/03/88)
I had a problem with "cat /dev/null > filename". A huge file would be created. The problem was that /dev/null was a block special file instead of a character special file. My original 1.2 disks had it as a block special file. I must have missed the switch cuz for 1.3 it must be a character special file. Thanks to ast for the hint. Now, in /dev I have lp, null, tty, tty0, tty1, tty2 ... as character special files, the rest are block special files. By the way, the printer loses characters if MINIX is real busy. The command in a large directory "crc *.c > /dev/lp" would lose as many as 5 characters in a row. -- Deborah Mullen