{"id":578056,"date":"2019-04-09T13:40:51","date_gmt":"2019-04-09T20:40:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/?post_type=msr-research-item&p=578056"},"modified":"2019-05-17T10:06:01","modified_gmt":"2019-05-17T17:06:01","slug":"a-fork-in-the-road","status":"publish","type":"msr-research-item","link":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/publication\/a-fork-in-the-road\/","title":{"rendered":"A fork() in the road"},"content":{"rendered":"

The received wisdom suggests that Unix’s unusual combination of fork()<\/code> and exec()<\/code> for process creation was an inspired design. In this paper, we argue that fork was a clever hack for machines and programs of the 1970s that has long outlived its usefulness and is now a liability. We catalog the ways in which fork is a terrible abstraction for the modern programmer to use, describe how it compromises OS implementations, and propose alternatives.<\/p>\n

As the designers and implementers of operating systems, we should acknowledge that fork’s continued existence as a first-class OS primitive holds back systems research, and deprecate it. As educators, we should teach fork as a historical artifact, and not the first process creation mechanism students encounter.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The received wisdom suggests that Unix’s unusual combination of fork() and exec() for process creation was an inspired design. In this paper, we argue that fork was a clever hack for machines and programs of the 1970s that has long outlived its usefulness and is now a liability. 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