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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
fork(2)).
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. Also called a fork bunny. See also
logic bomb.
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