Timeline for How is /dev/null implemented?
Current License: CC BY-SA 4.0
8 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
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| Feb 22, 2023 at 1:57 | vote | accept | Ярослав Рахматуллин | ||
| Sep 22, 2021 at 21:23 | answer | added | Stephen Kitt | timeline score: 9 | |
| Sep 22, 2021 at 21:07 | comment | added | jesse_b |
Yeah I mean cat /dev/urandom is pretty cpu intensive in itself so a do nothing process for every line added to it probably wouldn't add much.
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| Sep 22, 2021 at 21:01 | comment | added | Jim L. |
As for specifically how it's implemented, recall that Linux is, after all, open source. This link is the best I can find quickly, but a more in-depth look can be had from the FreeBSD kernel's null device at https://www.leidinger.net/FreeBSD/dox/dev_null/html/da/dea/null_8c_source.html. Basically, all that has to happen when writing to /dev/null is ... nothing. The device driver does nothing, and returns a successful result code.
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| Sep 22, 2021 at 20:52 | history | edited | Ярослав Рахматуллин | CC BY-SA 4.0 |
added 303 characters in body
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| Sep 22, 2021 at 20:49 | comment | added | jesse_b | Not very verbose but see null(4) | |
| Sep 22, 2021 at 20:49 | comment | added | Peregrino69 | Here's a recent thread with pretty much the same exact question :-) | |
| Sep 22, 2021 at 20:44 | history | asked | Ярослав Рахматуллин | CC BY-SA 4.0 |