Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!husc6!mailrus!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!cs.utexas.edu!sm.unisys.com!csun!polyslo!steve From: steve@polyslo.CalPoly.EDU (Steve DeJarnett) Newsgroups: comp.arch Subject: Re: History Question: Origin of fork() Message-ID: <7204@polyslo.CalPoly.EDU> Date: 20 Jan 89 21:38:42 GMT References: <43676@linus.UUCP> Reply-To: steve@polyslo.CalPoly.EDU (Steve DeJarnett) Organization: Lab Rat Rumpus Room -- Cal Poly SLO Lines: 15 In article <43676@linus.UUCP> dee@linus.UUCP (David E. Emery) writes: >Who "invented" fork? What system was the first to use fork? According to "The Design and Implementation of 4.3BSD Unix": "The fork operation to create new processes comes from Berkeley's GENIE (SDS-940, later XDS-940) operating system. Allowing a user to create processes inexpensively led to using one process per command, rather than running commands as procedure calls, as is done in Multics." ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | Steve DeJarnett | Smart Mailers -> steve@polyslo.CalPoly.EDU | | Computer Systems Lab | Dumb Mailers -> ..!ucbvax!voder!polyslo!steve | | Cal Poly State Univ. |------------------------------------------------| | San Luis Obispo, CA 93407 | BITNET = Because Idiots Type NETwork | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------