Software fork: Difference between revisions

From Citizendium
Jump to navigation Jump to search
imported>Greg Sabino Mullane
m (Testing finished)
imported>ZachPruckowski
No edit summary
Line 1: Line 1:
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.
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.
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.


[[Category:CZ Live]]
[[Category:CZ Live]]

Revision as of 11:44, 29 January 2007

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.

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.