'\" te
.\"  Copyright 1989 AT&T
.\" Copyright (C) 2001, Sun Microsystems, Inc.
.\" All Rights Reserved
.\" The contents of this file are subject to the terms of the Common Development and Distribution License (the "License").  You may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
.\" You can obtain a copy of the license at usr/src/OPENSOLARIS.LICENSE or http://www.opensolaris.org/os/licensing.  See the License for the specific language governing permissions and limitations under the License.
.\" When distributing Covered Code, include this CDDL HEADER in each file and include the License file at usr/src/OPENSOLARIS.LICENSE.  If applicable, add the following below this CDDL HEADER, with the fields enclosed by brackets "[]" replaced with your own identifying information: Portions Copyright [yyyy] [name of copyright owner]
.TH NULL 7D "Apr 4, 2001"
.SH NAME
null \- the null file, also called the null device
.SH SYNOPSIS
.LP
.nf
\fB/dev/null\fR
.fi

.SH DESCRIPTION
.sp
.LP
Data written on the null special file, \fB/dev/null\fR, is discarded.
.sp
.LP
Reads from a null special file always return 0 bytes.
.sp
.LP
Mapping a null special file creates an address reservation of a length equal to
the length of the mapping, and rounded up to the nearest page size as returned
by \fBsysconf\fR(3C). No resources are consumed by the reservation. Mappings
can be placed in the resulting address range via subsequent calls to \fBmmap\fR
with the \fB-MAP_FIXED\fR option set.
.SH FILES
.sp
.ne 2
.na
\fB\fB/dev/null\fR\fR
.ad
.RS 13n

.RE

.SH SEE ALSO
.sp
.LP
\fBmmap\fR(2), \fBsysconf\fR(3C)