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In a document created by a former coworker there is this command:

cat /dev/null > /var/spool/mail/root

It says next to it that it will clean out mailbox.

Can someone please explain how/why these commands do that. I need to know what will happen before I run the command.

We are trying to clean up space on var, as of right now it's at 91%.

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    It basically truncates /var/spool/mail/root – Milind Dumbare Mar 11 '15 at 15:30
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The command will output the data from device /dev/null to the given file (mailbox of the root account). Since /dev/null responds just with end-of-file when reading from it nothing will be written to the file, but with the redirection > the shell will have cleared the file already. Actually this is equivalent to writing just

> /var/spool/mail/root

(i.e., the same without cat or /dev/null).

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  • another alternative (that is probably clearer) truncate -s 0 /var/spool/mail/root. – derobert Mar 11 '15 at 16:40
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cat /dev/null > /var/spool/mail/root truncates /var/spool/mail/root

Alternative is > /var/spool/mail/root

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  • Is there a way I can get all the mail from this and put it somewhere where it can be downloaded and archived as a backup? – AllisonC Mar 11 '15 at 15:38
  • Just copy that file /var/spool/mail/root – Milind Dumbare Mar 11 '15 at 15:40

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