dictionary help<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.
(01 Feb 1996)
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1. An instrument consisting consisting of a handle with a shank terminating in two or more prongs or tines, which are usually of metal, parallel and slightly curved; used from piercing, holding, taking up, or pitching anything.
2. Anything furcate or like of a fork in shape, or furcate at the extremity; as, a tuning fork.
3. One of the parts into which anything is furcated or divided; a prong; a branch of a stream, a road, etc.; a barbed point, as of an arrow. "Let it fall . . . Though the fork invade The region of my heart." (Shak) "A thunderbolt with three forks." (Addison)
4. The place where a division or a union occurs; the angle or opening between two branches or limbs; as, the fork of a river, a tree, or a road.
5. The gibbet. Fork beam A mine is said to be in fork, or an engine to "have the water in fork," when all the water is drawn out of the mine. The forks of a river or a road, the branches into which it divides, or which come together to form it; the place where separation or union takes place.
6. To shoot into blades, as corn. "The corn beginneth to fork."
Origin: AS. Forc, fr. L. Furca. Cf. Fourch, Furcate.
(04 Apr 1998)
forget, forget-me-not, forgetting, fork < Prev | Next > forkbeard, fork bomb, forked
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