On 2025-11-21 13:26, Reid Burton via Cygwin wrote:
I was in the process of freeing up space on my computer, and I found that
cygwin was taking up more space than I thought, I was trying to uninstall
it, but it was failing to delete /dev/nul, the problem was that dos systems
are forbidden from deleting files with that and a few other names (see
https://superuser.com/questions/282194/how-do-i-remove-a-file-named-nul-on-windows)
I believe that this information should be included in the removal
documentation.
Cygwin uninstallation involves using Cygwin Setup to uninstall all packages,
then deleting any remnants that Setup does not remove under that Cygwin root.
Cygwin does not install /dev/nul, it installs the Unix equivalent driver:
$ ls -glo /dev/nul*
crw-rw-rw- 1 1, 3 Nov 21 14:14 /dev/null
although it exists in Windows as the NUL device driver, as if mapped into every
directory, but neither searchable nor deletable; although if you actually have
files with Windows reserved names, Cygwin commands (rm/rmdir) will delete them,
as will using Windows console commands like del \\?\C:\My\Path\NUL
See also:
https://superuser.com/questions/282194/how-do-i-remove-a-file-named-nul-on-windows
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Take care. Thanks, Brian Inglis Calgary, Alberta, Canada
La perfection est atteinte Perfection is achieved
non pas lorsqu'il n'y a plus rien à ajouter not when there is no more to add
mais lorsqu'il n'y a plus rien à retrancher but when there is no more to cut
-- Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
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