JargonFile/entries/fork bomb.txt
2014-04-26 16:54:15 +01:00

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fork bomb
n. [Unix] A particular species of wabbit that can be written in one line of
C ( main() {for(;;)fork(); }) or shell ( $0 $0 ) on any Unix system, or
occasionally created by an egregious coding bug. A fork bomb process
explodes by recursively spawning copies of itself (using the Unix system
call fork (2) ). Eventually it eats all the process table entries and
effectively wedges the system. Fortunately, fork bombs are relatively easy
to spot and kill, so creating one deliberately seldom accomplishes more than
to bring the just wrath of the gods down upon the perpetrator. Also called a
fork bunny. See also logic bomb.