Re: dynamically created /dev/null is a regular file

[David Holland <dholland-current%netbsd.org@localhost>]

On Wed, Jun 24, 2015 at 04:43:17PM -0600, Brook Milligan wrote:
 > I have been installing some -current systems (cvs from
 > 201505311600Z to be exact) that dynamically construct /dev when
 > booting.  This seems to be the default behavior of rc when /dev is
 > effectively empty.  The problem is that /dev/null routinely ends up
 > being a regular file not a device file.  How and when are the
 > device files created and why is null created wrongly?  Could it
 > have been created somehow before the rest of the devices are
 > created dynamically?
 > 
 > Is this related to kern/33023?

It might be; but given that this mode gets used a fair amount, and
also that the device should be getting created in the top of the
unionfs, I would guess more likely not.

I would do a quick look for something (e.g. in your shell startup
files) that's clobbering /dev/null somehow. I had a horrible
intermittent problem with this at one point until I discovered that
less would do it for you if you linked .lesshst to /dev/null...

-- 
David A. Holland
dholland%netbsd.org@localhost