Login or Register to Ask a Question and Join Our Community


UNIX for Dummies Questions & Answers

mv files to /dev/null

 
Thread Tools Search this Thread
Top Forums UNIX for Dummies Questions & Answers mv files to /dev/null
# 1  
Old 11-01-2001
mv files to /dev/null
im having trouble with moving files in a directory into /dev/null
Code:
      for file in $HOME/.trashcan/
      do
         mv $file /dev/null
      done

the error msg i get is:
Code:
mv: /dev/null: not a directory.

does anyone know how to fix this?
thanks
primal
# 2  
Old 11-01-2001
You could just rm $file. If so inclined, you could rm -f or rm -rf depending on what stuff you'll be deleting...
# 3  
Old 11-01-2001
livinfree to the rescue again! Smilie
would that code also take care of directories inside my .trashcan?
# 4  
Old 11-01-2001
Just for clarification, /dev/null is a "device"
(psudo-device), not a directory. It is
essentially a "bit-bucket" meaning that you can
send data to it and it will "dispose" of that
data. For instance...

ls -l > /dev/null

...will send all the output of "ls -l" to the
bit bucket. No output will be displayed.
# 5  
Old 11-01-2001
another use
I have found emptying a file with <b> cat /dev/null > file </b> useful in some cases where I want to empty a file, such as a log file, without deleting and recreating.
# 6  
Old 11-01-2001
Or you can save a cat and just do:

Code:
&gt; file

# 7  
Old 11-01-2001
Thank PxT.... learned a nice new trick Smilie

Code:
server# cat /etc/services > /tmp/test
server# > /tmp/test
server# cat /tmp/test
server#

Never havd done this, but it makes perfect sense !!!
 
Login or Register to Ask a Question

Previous Thread | Next Thread

10 More Discussions You Might Find Interesting

1. Shell Programming and Scripting

2>/dev/null

Friends have the following problem a search may not find anything which would correct example: ls -ltr *prueba.txt | nawk '{ print $9 }' > Procesar.dat 2>/dev/null When he finds nothing gives me the following error ls: prueba.txt: No such file or directory because 2> / dev / null... (4 Replies)
Discussion started by: tricampeon81
4 Replies

2. UNIX for Dummies Questions & Answers

Make /dev/null all the files

How can I make /dev/null all the 8640 files that I am getting from this command. find . \( ! -name . -prune \) -type f -name "EXPORT_v1x0*" | awk -F'_' '$6<20120812' And then delete everything. If I am using this command to delete it, I am getting Disk Quota Exceeded Exception. find .... (4 Replies)
Discussion started by: raihan26
4 Replies

3. Shell Programming and Scripting

Help with /dev/null Please

Hello All and a Happy New year to yous guys. I'm running the below command on my AIX box and it keeps giving me the message that the file doesn't exist. I know the file don't exist, but I don't want to see the error. 2>/dev/null doesn't work. bash-3.00$ ls -l C* | wc -l 2>/dev/null ls:... (2 Replies)
Discussion started by: bbbngowc
2 Replies

4. Shell Programming and Scripting

Redirecting standard out to /dev/null goes to file "/dev/null" instead

I apologize if this question has been answered else where or is too elementary. I ran across a KSH script (long unimportant story) that does this: if ; then CAS_SRC_LOG="/var/log/cas_src.log 2>&1" else CAS_SRC_LOG="/dev/null 2>&1" fithen does this: /usr/bin/echo "heartbeat:... (5 Replies)
Discussion started by: jbmorrisonjr
5 Replies

5. UNIX for Dummies Questions & Answers

/dev/null 2>&1 Versus /dev/null 2>1

How are these two different? They both prevent output and error from being displayed. I don't see the use of the "&" echo "hello" > /dev/null 2>&1 echo "hello" > /dev/null 2>1 (3 Replies)
Discussion started by: glev2005
3 Replies

6. Shell Programming and Scripting

/dev/null what is the use of it?

when do you use the path /dev/null (3 Replies)
Discussion started by: webmunkey23
3 Replies

7. Solaris

What is /dev/tty /dev/null and /dev/console

Hi, Anyone can help My solaris 8 system has the following /dev/null , /dev/tty and /dev/console All permission are lrwxrwxrwx Can this be change to a non-world write ?? any impact ?? (12 Replies)
Discussion started by: civic2005
12 Replies

8. UNIX for Advanced & Expert Users

Q1 :/dev/null Q2 -A

Hi, Q1-What does nroff -ms > /dev/null Q2- What does mean -A under STAT column : ps aux |head -20 UTIL PID %CPU %MEM SZ RSS TTY STAT STIME TIME COMMAND root 516 93,0 0,0 12 12 - A 04 nov 3906:51 wait Thank you. (4 Replies)
Discussion started by: big123456
4 Replies

9. UNIX for Dummies Questions & Answers

/dev/null

Hi , I am importing some table from /dev/null i dont understand what is /dev/null Sorry i am new to UNIX sam71 (3 Replies)
Discussion started by: sam71
3 Replies

10. UNIX for Dummies Questions & Answers

>/dev/null

Maybe it's an stupid question but remeber... I'm Junior.. I use command line to run programs, and some of them gives a lot of information when, for example, you open a window or other actions. That's really bad because my terminal gets full of unwanted messages, so I use "bin file & >/dev/null"... (1 Reply)
Discussion started by: piltrafa
1 Replies
Login or Register to Ask a Question