Since yall brought this up, I have a question.
What is the difference between. These two commands
1) cat /dev/null > somefile
2) cat /dev/zero > somefile
3) > somefile
Zeroing out a file.
I know that "dd can be used to create a file of X bytes for testing and to "hold" space in a filesytem and for doing "disk dumps" an d for destroying data on a disk ( not the prescribed method).
I think I know another reason for /dev/zero. That would be to zero out a disk for reuse.
Any insight would be informative.