fork
<operating system> A Unix system call used by a process (the "parent") to
make a copy (the "child") of itself. The child process is identical to the
parent except it has a different process identifier and a zero return value from
the fork call. It is assumed to have used no resources.
A fork followed by an exec can be used to start a different process but this can
be inefficient and some later Unix variants provide vfork as an alternative
mechanism for this.
See also fork bomb.
(1996-12-08)
Nearby terms:
foreign key « Foresight « for free « fork »
fork bomb » forked » for loop
|
