Re: [gentoo-user] File system meta-data indexer / checker

[Ciprian Dorin Craciun <ciprian.craciun@gmail.com>]

On Mon, Jun 17, 2013 at 6:56 PM, Peter Humphrey
<peter@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
>>
>> <peter@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
>> >> <lists@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?