diff --git a/lisp/ChangeLog b/lisp/ChangeLog
index 4bb2171c17c..4a3c3204d7c 100644
--- a/lisp/ChangeLog
+++ b/lisp/ChangeLog
@@ -1,5 +1,9 @@
 2001-04-06  Eli Zaretskii  <eliz@is.elta.co.il>
 
+	* progmodes/compile.el (grep-compute-defaults): Use null-device
+	instead of literal /dev/null. Reported by Jens Schmidt
+	<schmidt@mathematik.uni-kl.de>.
+
 	* simple.el (normal-erase-is-backspace-mode): Doc fix.
 
 2001-04-06  Dave Love  <fx@gnu.org>
diff --git a/lisp/progmodes/compile.el b/lisp/progmodes/compile.el
index 7bb976d1656..71978477ee3 100644
--- a/lisp/progmodes/compile.el
+++ b/lisp/progmodes/compile.el
@@ -587,8 +587,8 @@ to a function that generates a unique name."
 		       grep-command))
 	      (grep-find-use-xargs
 	       (format "find . -type f -print | xargs %s" grep-command))
-	      (t (cons (format "find . -type f -exec %s {} /dev/null \\;"
-			       grep-command)
+	      (t (cons (format "find . -type f -exec %s {} %s \\;"
+			       grep-command null-device)
 		       (+ 22 (length grep-command)))))))
 
 ;;;###autoload