Type null character in terminal
In Linux, any special character can be literally inserted on the terminal by pressing Ctrl+v followed by the actual symbol. null
is usually ^@
where ^
stands for Ctrl and @
for whatever combination on your keyboard layout that produces @.
So on my keyboard I do: Ctrl+v followed by Ctrl+Shift+@ and I get a ^@
symbol with a distinguished background color. This means it's a special character and not just ^
and @
typed in.
Edit: Several years later and a few input variations implemented by different terminals using keyboard layouts that require pressing Shift to access @.
- Ctrl+v followed by Ctrl+Shift+@
- Ctrl+v followed by Shift+@ without releasing Ctrl.
- Ctrl+Shift+v followed by @ without releasing Ctrl+Shift.
- Ctrl+Shift release Shift and re-press Shift keeping both Ctrl+Shift pressed followed by v and finally @. Seen in some terminals that implement a special input on Ctrl+Shift.
Apparently you can type this character with ^@ on some character sets. This wikipedia article on the null character may be helpful.