Software fork: Difference between revisions

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imported>Eric M Gearhart
(I'm removing speedydelete becuase I'm going to take this article 'under my wing' and work on it. It's going to be useful for the Unix article)
imported>Eric M Gearhart
(Wording and whatnot)
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A '''fork''' of a [[computer oftware]] 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."
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.
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 after it is ready for release.


[[Category:CZ Live]]
[[Category:CZ Live]]
[[Category:Computers Workgroup]]
[[Category:Computers Workgroup]]

Revision as of 07:08, 9 April 2007

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 after it is ready for release.