> More accurately, it seems the system treats them like empty files.
The reason is that the content is generated by a callback that the kernel calls, and the kernel does not want the content to be generated just in order to stat(2) the file, so it shows a zero length, and assumes that things like /bin/cat will just read(2) until EOF is returned, without trying to be too smart.
The reason is that the content is generated by a callback that the kernel calls, and the kernel does not want the content to be generated just in order to stat(2) the file, so it shows a zero length, and assumes that things like /bin/cat will just read(2) until EOF is returned, without trying to be too smart.