portable /dev/null

["Martin v. Löwis"]

> I have functions that take a file object and write to it. In some cases I
> just want to throw out what is written to that file object. I want
> something like open('/dev/null', 'w'), but portable.
> 
> It needs to have an underlying file descriptor/file handle, as it will be
> passed to non python code.
> 
> Is there a portable /dev/null somewhere in the standard library?

The subprocess module should work fine. Pass a pipe to the subprocess,
and read and discard anything from the pipe (e.g. in a separate thread).
If the non-Python code is inprocess, you are out of luck. Some systems
just don't support a null device, so Python can't possibly emulate it.

Regards,
Martin