🌿 Dividing into parts 💻 Copying a project 🌊 A split point

forking

1 6.1

Copying a project's code to make a separate version to work on

noun
/ˈfɔrkɪŋ/

Jargon

: bifurcación

The developer created a new forking of the project to add unique features that suited their needs.

Examples

I was not comparing Samsung's content selling ability to Amazon's, but their OS-forking ability.

Blog text (27)
There was Unix from AT&T or Bell Labs and then there was a fork of that from Berkeley, which was called BSD.
Many open-source projects encourage forking so that developers can customize the software for their own purposes.
After forking the repository, the team was able to implement their own changes without affecting the original code.

Synonyms

fork

vsforking

Specialized

3 6.9

A copy of a software project that people change separately from the original

describes the action of making a separate project from an existing repository

Antonyms

unifying

22 3.7

Brings people or things together into one group

merging

12 3.0

The act of joining two or more things into one

How Divergent

branching

4 3.4

forking

Jargon

1 6.1

diverging

2 5.4

Surface Forms

forking singular

forkings plural

Morphology

forking = fork (semi-transparent) = fork + ing

The computing sense is a metaphorical extension of physical 'forking' and requires domain knowledge of software repositories.

Etymology

Forking comes from fork, the tool with prongs that point in different directions, giving the image of a split path. In software, forking means copying a project to make a new, separate version, so the code can be developed independently.