[1] : Jargon File (4.3.1, 29 Jun 2001)

fork bomb n. unix a particular species of wabbit that can be
   written in one line of c `main for;;fork;' or shell `$0  $0
   ' on any unix system, or occasionally created by an egregious coding
   bug. a fork bomb process `explodes' by recursively spawning copies of
   itself using the unix system call `fork2'. eventually it eats all
   the process table entries and effectively wedges the system.
   fortunately, fork bombs are relatively easy to spot and kill, so
   creating one deliberately seldom accomplishes more than to bring the
   just wrath of the gods down upon the perpetrator. see also logic bomb.


see also:
wabbit for;;fork; logic bomb 

[2] : The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (27 SEP 03)

fork bomb
     
         a particular species of wabbit that can be
        written in one line of c:
     
        	main for;;fork;
     
        or shell:
     
        	$0  $0 
     
        on any unix system, or occasionally created by an egregious
        coding bug.  a fork bomb process "explodes" by recursively
        spawning copies of itself using the unix system call
        "fork2".  eventually it eats all the process table entries
        and effectively wedges the system.  fortunately, fork bombs
        are relatively easy to spot and kill, so creating one
        deliberately seldom accomplishes more than to bring the just
        wrath of the gods down upon the perpetrator.
     
        see also logic bomb.
     
        jargon file
     
        1994-12-14
     
     
see also:
wabbit c for;;fork; shell unix recursive 
system call fork god logic bomb jargon file 

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