Software fork: Difference between revisions

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: ''This article is about "forking" of a software project into two or more different projects. For the operating system term for starting a new process, see [[fork (operating system)]]''


A '''fork''' of a [[free software]] project--or [[free content]] project--is a version of the original software that makes use of the same (or a compatible) [[open source license]], but which is itself incompatible with the original version.
[[Image:BSD_Timeline.png|thumb|220px|right|A timeline of [[BSD]] [[Unix]] development. In this example a fork occurs when the NetBSD project was started, and again when the OpenBSD project was forked from NetBSD]]
A '''fork''' of a [[computer software]] project is generally a version of the original software that makes use of the same (or a compatible) [[license]], but with a development team that is usually under "new management." Forks usually occur when fundamental design differences can't be agreed upon.


A fork can also exist within a project, when code is divided into branches.  For instance, [[Firefox]] development occurs on multiple codebases at the same time.  While development on Firefox 2.0 was ongoing, other developers were working on 3.0, while patches and support continued to be issued for version 1.5.  Other projects have "stable" and "development" branches, where code from the unstable branch is moved to the stable branch when it is thoroughly tested.
==Notable Forks in the History of Software development==
* [[Unix]] has been forked literally hundreds, if not thousands of times from the original software developed at Bell Labs


[[Category:CZ Live]]
*"The BSDs" (FreeBSD, NetBSD and OpenBSD) are three popular forks of the original [[Berkeley Software Distribution]], which is itself a descendant of [[Unix]][[Category:Suggestion Bot Tag]]
[[Category:Computers Workgroup]]

Latest revision as of 06:00, 20 October 2024

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https://en.citizendium.org/wiki/index.php?title=Software_fork&printable=yes
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This article is about "forking" of a software project into two or more different projects. For the operating system term for starting a new process, see fork (operating system)
A timeline of BSD Unix development. In this example a fork occurs when the NetBSD project was started, and again when the OpenBSD project was forked from NetBSD

A fork of a computer software project is generally a version of the original software that makes use of the same (or a compatible) license, but with a development team that is usually under "new management." Forks usually occur when fundamental design differences can't be agreed upon.

Notable Forks in the History of Software development

  • Unix has been forked literally hundreds, if not thousands of times from the original software developed at Bell Labs
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