What is the equivalent of /dev/null on Windows?
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windows
I think you want NUL, at least within a command prompt or batch files.
For example:
type c:\autoexec.bat > NUL
doesn't create a file.
(I believe the same is true if you try to create a file programmatically, but I haven't tried it.)
In PowerShell, you want $null:
echo 1 > $null
Jon Skeet is correct. Here is the Nul Device Driver page in the Windows Embedded documentation (I have no idea why it's not somewhere else...).
Here is another:
According to this message on the GCC mailing list, you can use the file "nul" instead of /dev/null:
#include <stdio.h>
int main ()
{
FILE* outfile = fopen ("/dev/null", "w");
if (outfile == NULL)
{
fputs ("could not open '/dev/null'", stderr);
}
outfile = fopen ("nul", "w");
if (outfile == NULL)
{
fputs ("could not open 'nul'", stderr);
}
return 0;
}
(Credits to Danny for this code; copy-pasted from his message.)
You can also use this special "nul" file through redirection.
You have to use start and $NUL for this in Windows PowerShell:
Type in this command assuming mySum is the name of your application and 5 10 are command line arguments you are sending.
start .\mySum 5 10 > $NUL 2>&1
The start command will start a detached process, a similar effect to &. The /B option prevents start from opening a new terminal window if the program you are running is a console application. and NUL is Windows' equivalent of /dev/null. The 2>&1 at the end will redirect stderr to stdout, which will all go to NUL.
According to this message on the GCC mailing list, you can use the file "nul" instead of /dev/null:
#include <stdio.h>
int main ()
{
FILE* outfile = fopen ("/dev/null", "w");
if (outfile == NULL)
{
fputs ("could not open '/dev/null'", stderr);
}
outfile = fopen ("nul", "w");
if (outfile == NULL)
{
fputs ("could not open 'nul'", stderr);
}
return 0;
}
(Credits to Danny for this code; copy-pasted from his message.)
You can also use this special "nul" file through redirection.
NUL in Windows seems to be actually a virtual path in any folder. Just like .., . in any filesystem.
Use any folder followed with NUL will work.
Example,
echo 1 > nul
echo 1 > c:\nul
echo 1 > c:\users\nul
echo 1 > c:\windows\nul
have the same effect as /dev/null on Linux.
This was tested on Windows 7, 64 bit.
Jon Skeet is correct. Here is the Nul Device Driver page in the Windows Embedded documentation (I have no idea why it's not somewhere else...).
Here is another:
If you need to perform in Microsoft Windows the equivalent of a symlink to /dev/null in Linux you would open and administrator's cmd and type:
For files:
mklink c:\path\to\file.ext NUL:
Or, for directories:
mklink /D c:\path\to\dir NUL:
This will keep the file/direcotry always at 0 byte, and still return success to every write attempt.
According to this message on the GCC mailing list, you can use the file "nul" instead of /dev/null:
#include <stdio.h>
int main ()
{
FILE* outfile = fopen ("/dev/null", "w");
if (outfile == NULL)
{
fputs ("could not open '/dev/null'", stderr);
}
outfile = fopen ("nul", "w");
if (outfile == NULL)
{
fputs ("could not open 'nul'", stderr);
}
return 0;
}
(Credits to Danny for this code; copy-pasted from his message.)
You can also use this special "nul" file through redirection.
Jon Skeet is correct. Here is the Nul Device Driver page in the Windows Embedded documentation (I have no idea why it's not somewhere else...).
Here is another:
If you need to perform in Microsoft Windows the equivalent of a symlink to /dev/null in Linux you would open and administrator's cmd and type:
For files:
mklink c:\path\to\file.ext NUL:
Or, for directories:
mklink /D c:\path\to\dir NUL:
This will keep the file/direcotry always at 0 byte, and still return success to every write attempt.
NUL works programmatically as well. E.g. the following:
freopen("NUL", "w", stderr);
works as expected without creating a file. (MSVC++ 12.0)
Jon Skeet is correct. Here is the Nul Device Driver page in the Windows Embedded documentation (I have no idea why it's not somewhere else...).
Here is another:
NUL works programmatically as well. E.g. the following:
freopen("NUL", "w", stderr);
works as expected without creating a file. (MSVC++ 12.0)
NUL in Windows seems to be actually a virtual path in any folder. Just like .., . in any filesystem.
Use any folder followed with NUL will work.
Example,
echo 1 > nul
echo 1 > c:\nul
echo 1 > c:\users\nul
echo 1 > c:\windows\nul
have the same effect as /dev/null on Linux.
This was tested on Windows 7, 64 bit.
According to this message on the GCC mailing list, you can use the file "nul" instead of /dev/null:
#include <stdio.h>
int main ()
{
FILE* outfile = fopen ("/dev/null", "w");
if (outfile == NULL)
{
fputs ("could not open '/dev/null'", stderr);
}
outfile = fopen ("nul", "w");
if (outfile == NULL)
{
fputs ("could not open 'nul'", stderr);
}
return 0;
}
(Credits to Danny for this code; copy-pasted from his message.)
You can also use this special "nul" file through redirection.
Source: Stackoverflow.com