[volunteers] Why you are careful about /dev/null operations as the root user

[Rick Moen]

Hey, and also:

Quoting Tim Utschig (tim at tetro.net):

> A little research indicated that this was due to a problem accessing
> /dev/{u,}random.  I had a look and found the chroot's /dev contained
> only 'null' and nothing else.
 
You know, I _should_ have figured that part out, too, because I was
seeing the StartTLS failures in real time as I test-processed Exim's
queue maually -- but I didn't investigate.  Moreover, I was fixated on
the horrificness of /dev/null being suddenly wrong that I cd'd into the
chroot's /dev and _didn't look around_.

All I did was fix the chroot's /dev/null, and I never even noticed that
the file was not only wrong but also the only file in the /dev tree at
all.

So, kudos for getting to the _real_ root cause of the problem.

I really need to go to be and try to get back onto Pacific Standard
Time.