<?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1" standalone="no"?> <html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><head><title>forked</title><link rel="stylesheet" href="../../jargon.css" type="text/css"/><meta name="generator" content="DocBook XSL Stylesheets V1.61.0"/><link rel="home" href="../index.html" title="The Jargon File"/><link rel="up" href="../F.html" title="F"/><link rel="previous" href="fork-bomb.html" title="fork bomb"/><link rel="next" href="Formosas-Law.html" title="Formosa's Law"/></head><body><div class="navheader"><table width="100%" summary="Navigation header"><tr><th colspan="3" align="center">forked</th></tr><tr><td width="20%" align="left"><a accesskey="p" href="fork-bomb.html">Prev</a> </td><th width="60%" align="center">F</th><td width="20%" align="right"> <a accesskey="n" href="Formosas-Law.html">Next</a></td></tr></table><hr/></div><dt><a id="forked"/><dt xmlns="" id="forked"><b>forked</b>: <span xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" class="grammar">adj.,vi.</span></dt></dt><dd><p> 1. [common after 1997, esp. in the Linux community] An open-source software project is said to have forked or be forked when the project group fissions into two or more parts pursuing separate lines of development (or, less commonly, when a third party unconnected to the project group begins its own line of development). Forking is considered a <a href="../B/Bad-Thing.html"><i class="glossterm">Bad Thing</i></a> — not merely because it implies a lot of wasted effort in the future, but because forks tend to be accompanied by a great deal of strife and acrimony between the successor groups over issues of legitimacy, succession, and design direction. There is serious social pressure against forking. As a result, major forks (such as the Gnu-Emacs/XEmacs split, the fissionings of the 386BSD group into three daughter projects, and the short-lived GCC/EGCS split) are rare enough that they are remembered individually in hacker folklore. </p></dd><dd><p> 2. [Unix; uncommon; prob.: influenced by a mainstream expletive] Terminally slow, or dead. Originated when one system was slowed to a snail's pace by an inadvertent <a href="fork-bomb.html"><i class="glossterm">fork bomb</i></a>.</p></dd><div class="navfooter"><hr/><table width="100%" summary="Navigation footer"><tr><td width="40%" align="left"><a accesskey="p" href="fork-bomb.html">Prev</a> </td><td width="20%" align="center"><a accesskey="u" href="../F.html">Up</a></td><td width="40%" align="right"> <a accesskey="n" href="Formosas-Law.html">Next</a></td></tr><tr><td width="40%" align="left" valign="top">fork bomb </td><td width="20%" align="center"><a accesskey="h" href="../index.html">Home</a></td><td width="40%" align="right" valign="top"> Formosa's Law</td></tr></table></div></body></html>