Path: utzoo!utgpu!watmath!clyde!att!rutgers!mailrus!cornell!uw-beaver!rice!sun-spots-request
From: lamy@ai.toronto.edu (Jean-Francois Lamy)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.sun
Subject: /dev/null broken !?
Message-ID: <88Nov19.132207est.6196@neat.ai.toronto.edu>
Date: 1 Dec 88 11:00:02 GMT
Sender: usenet@rice.edu
Organization: Rice University, Houston, Texas
Lines: 12
Approved: Sun-Spots@rice.edu
Original-Date: 	Sat, 19 Nov 88 13:22:06 EST
X-Sun-Spots-Digest: Volume 7, Issue 31, message 6 of 19

At least half a dozen times now, we have observed /dev/null mutating into
something different.  One day we found /dev/null had a non-zero size.
Somehow programs took a very long time reading it...  Another common
mutation is to change to /dev/drum's major number.  Then, the next
morning, the script that rolls the logs innocently copies /dev/null to
each log.  From 80 Megs free in /var to 0 in a few seconds flat...  These
mutations have been seen on two different Sun 4s with RF3220 controllers,
both running 4.0.  Maybe this should go to some science-fiction mailing
list :-).

Jean-Francois Lamy               lamy@ai.utoronto.ca, uunet!ai.utoronto.ca!lamy
AI Group, Department of Creative Solutions, University of Toronto