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DOH! At 02:23 PM 4/4/2002 +0100, you wrote:
On Thu, Apr 04, 2002 at 03:10:01PM +0200, php@nickselby.com wrote:
Hmmm. When I did cat /dev/null it started scrolling for about a week (actually about two hours) but I got the impression it was COPYING the file to /dev/null not moving the cvontents there. Was that just plain wrong of me?
You remembered the redirection arrow?
cat /dev/null > /var/log/messages
^ | This is important
what it's doing is copying /dev/null (which is a zero-length file) to overwrite /var/log/messages.
If you miss out the arrow, then you're just asking cat to display the contents of /dev/null and /var/log/messages on the screen. I'm not surprised that it scrolled for ages.
-- David Smith | Tel: +44 (0)1454 462380 Home: +44 (0)1454 616963 STMicroelectronics | Fax: +44 (0)1454 617910 Mobile: +44 (0)7932 642724 1000 Aztec West | TINA: 065 2380 Almondsbury | Work Email: Dave.Smith@st.com BRISTOL, BS32 4SQ | Home Email: David.Smith@ds-electronics.co.uk
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