title: What is </dev/null in bash?
body: <p>In bash, standard (1) and error (2) output can be  re-routed and discarded with:</p>
  
  <pre><code>&gt;/dev/null 2&gt;&amp;1
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>But the following example does something different:</p>
  
  <pre><code>nohup myscript.sh &gt;myscript.log 2&gt;&amp;1 &lt;/dev/null &amp;
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>What is the meaning/function of <code>&lt;/dev/null</code> in the example above?  In what sort of scripting scenario would it be useful?</p>
  
  <p><a href="https://stackoverflow.com/questions/8122780/exiting-shell-script-with-background-processes">(Example Source)</a></p>