Editing Null device (section)

==Usage==
The null device is typically used for disposing of unwanted output [[stream (computing)|stream]]s of a process, or as a convenient empty [[computer file|file]] for input streams. This is usually done by [[Redirection (computing)|redirection]]. For example, <code>tar -c -f /dev/null "example directory"</code> can be used to dry-run the [[tar (computing)|TAR file archiving utility]] to see if any errors would occur but without writing any file.

The <code>/dev/null</code> device is a [[Device file#Character devices|special file]], not a [[directory (file systems)|directory]], so one cannot move a whole file or directory into it with the Unix <code>[[mv (Unix)|mv]]</code> command.