The /dev/null device on windows is now NIL
That is not true.
The nul device on wihdows is any file with a name that (without any extension) equals 'nul' in any case.
Ie nul, NUL nUl, Nul; NUL.TXT, nul.TXT, NUl.tXt, nul.exe, .\nul, .\..\cwd\fred\..\nul.asmanycharactersafterthedotasyoucaretoadd
C:\test>md newdir
C:\test>cd newdir
C:\test\newdir>echo . > NIL
C:\test\newdir>dir
30/07/2012 21:06 <DIR> .
30/07/2012 21:06 <DIR> ..
30/07/2012 21:06 4 NIL
1 File(s) 4 bytes
2 Dir(s) 101,782,999,040 bytes free
C:\test\newdir>echo . > NUL
C:\test\newdir>echo . > nul
C:\test\newdir>echo . > NuL
C:\test\newdir>echo . > ./../newdir/nul
C:\test\newdir>echo . > nulpoint
C:\test\newdir>echo . > nul.txt
C:\test\newdir>echo . > nul.exe
C:\test\newdir>echo . > c:\test\newdir\nul.1231243345345
C:\test\newdir>dir
Volume in drive C has no label.
Volume Serial Number is 8C78-4B42
Directory of C:\test\newdir
30/07/2012 21:07 <DIR> .
30/07/2012 21:07 <DIR> ..
30/07/2012 21:06 4 NIL
30/07/2012 21:07 4 nulpoint
2 File(s) 8 bytes
2 Dir(s) 101,783,220,224 bytes free
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Several resources suggest that NUL is a reserved file name, not NIL. I don't have a windows at hand to test it, but I'd guess it's actually NUL that is equivalent to UNIX' /dev/null.
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Do you have a reference for that? I am not able to verify that this is the case. If it is, ouch (unnecessary backward compatible breakage). In fact, my testing from a Windows 7 cmd prompt and perl script seem to disprove your assertion.
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