[comp.os.minix] Is /dev/null a block or character device?

Leisner.Henr@xerox.com (Marty) (05/21/88)

I was just playing around with had trouble doing things :

cat * | cat >/dev/null

was coming up with broken pipe errors.

Turns out /dev/null was configured as a block device.  Changing it to a
character device appears to solve the problem.

Is /dev/null supposed to be a block or character device?  My distribution proto
file had it as a block file.  I don't know how the initial root file system was
configured.

marty
ARPA:	leisner.henr@xerox.com
GV:  leisner.henr
NS:  martin leisner:henr801c:xerox
UUCP:	nsc!nscimg!amps!marty
 

phil@osiris.UUCP (Philip Kos) (05/24/88)

(apologies - there was no good [for me] mail reply path in the original
article)

On the UNIX systems I have access to here, /dev/null is a character
device.

                                                                 Phil Kos
                                                      Information Systems
...!uunet!pyrdc!osiris!phil                    The Johns Hopkins Hospital
                                                            Baltimore, MD