Re: /dev/null > /dev/sdb1 !
On Tue, 22 Apr 2008 21:35:31 +0800
paragasu <paragasu@gmail.com> wrote:
> now i am wondering. whether it is because the command i just executed
> or my hard disk is really dying?
It could be either. The command you typed effectively formatted the
disk.
/dev/null contains no data. It is the Linux equivalent of a black
hole. If you send the output of /dev/null to a file (which is exactly
what you have done) with a single chevron (>), it will overwrite
anything that exists in that file (in this case the entire contents of
your disk). If you use a double chevron (>>) you will append the
contents of /dev/null to the end of the file (in this case, your disk).
All I can say is "I hope you took a backup..."
Kind regards,
Matt
--
|Matthew Macdonald-Wallace
|Tiger Computing Ltd
|"The Linux Specialists"
|
|Tel: 0330 088 1511
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