资料来源 : Free On-Line Dictionary of Computing

bit bucket
     
         1. (Or "{write-only memory}", "WOM") The universal
        data sink (originally, the mythical receptacle used to catch
        bits when they fall off the end of a {register} during a
        {shift} instruction).  Discarded, lost, or destroyed data is
        said to have "gone to the bit bucket".  On {Unix}, often used
        for {/dev/null}.  Sometimes amplified as "the Great Bit Bucket
        in the Sky".
     
        2. The place where all lost mail and news messages eventually
        go.  The selection is performed according to {Finagle's Law};
        important mail is much more likely to end up in the bit bucket
        than junk mail, which has an almost 100% probability of
        getting delivered.  Routing to the bit bucket is automatically
        performed by mail-transfer agents, news systems, and the lower
        layers of the network.
     
        3. The ideal location for all unwanted mail responses: "Flames
        about this article to the bit bucket."  Such a request is
        guaranteed to overflow one's mailbox with flames.
     
        4. Excuse for all mail that has not been sent.  "I mailed you
        those figures last week; they must have landed in the bit
        bucket."  Compare {black hole}.
     
        This term is used purely in jest.  It is based on the fanciful
        notion that bits are objects that are not destroyed but only
        misplaced.  This appears to have been a mutation of an earlier
        term "bit box", about which the same legend was current;
        old-time hackers also report that trainees used to be told
        that when the CPU stored bits into memory it was actually
        pulling them "out of the bit box".
     
        Another variant of this legend has it that, as a consequence
        of the "parity preservation law", the number of 1 bits that go
        to the bit bucket must equal the number of 0 bits.  Any
        imbalance results in bits filling up the bit bucket.  A
        qualified computer technician can empty a full bit bucket as
        part of scheduled maintenance.
     
        In contrast, a "{chad box}" is a real container used to catch
        {chad}.  This may be related to the origin of the term "bit
        bucket" [Comments ?].
     
        (1996-11-20)