On Mon, Jun 17, 2013 at 6:56 PM, Peter Humphrey <pe...@humphrey.ukfsn.org> wrote: > On Monday 17 Jun 2013 08:25:08 Ciprian Dorin Craciun wrote: >> On Mon, Jun 17, 2013 at 10:21 AM, Peter Humphrey >> >> <pe...@humphrey.ukfsn.org> wrote: >> > On Monday 17 Jun 2013 07:00:35 Ciprian Dorin Craciun wrote: >> >> On Mon, Jun 17, 2013 at 8:52 AM, Florian Philipp >> >> <li...@binarywings.net> >> > >> > wrote: >> >> > Do you mean something like `cp --attributes-only`? >> >> > >> >> Nop, wouldn't do the job, because `cp --attributes-only` requires >> >> >> >> a target file system, ... >> > >> > You could always cp to /dev/null. >> >> Sorry I don't follow... What does imply to "cp to /dev/null", and >> what would be the outcome of that? > > /dev/null would be the target file system you referred to. It's a bottomless > empty pit, so no physically real copy would be made.
I would be curious to find out how one can use `/dev/null` as a replacement for an **entire** file-system (i.e. not just a replacement for a stream sink)? And how would the `cp` command be used to obtain such an outcome?