Fork vs. Exec — What's the Difference?

In cutlery or kitchenware, a fork (from Latin: furca 'pitchfork') is a utensil, now usually made of metal, whose long handle terminates in a head that branches into several narrow and often slightly curved tines with which one can spear foods either to hold them to cut with a knife or to lift them to the mouth.

An executive.

A utensil with two or more prongs, used for eating or serving food.

The executive officer of a unit of the armed forces.

An implement with two or more prongs used for raising, carrying, piercing, or digging.

(informal) executive, executive officer

A bifurcation or separation into two or more branches or parts.

To execute; to run.

The point at which such a bifurcation or separation occurs

The chief executive department of the United States government

One of the branches of such a bifurcation or separation

(Games) An attack by one chess piece on two pieces at the same time.

To raise, carry, pitch, or pierce with a fork.

To give the shape of a fork to (one's fingers, for example).

(Games) To launch an attack on (two chess pieces).

(Informal) To pay. Used with over, out, or up

To divide into two or more branches

To use a fork, as in working.

To turn at or travel along a fork.

Any of several types of pronged (tined) tools (physical tools), as follows:

A utensil with spikes used to put solid food into the mouth, or to hold food down while cutting.

Any of several types of pronged tools for use on farms, in fields, or in the garden or lawn, such as a smaller hand fork for weeding or a larger one for turning over the soil.

A tuning fork.

(by abstraction, from the tool shape) A fork in the road, as follows:

(physical) An intersection in a road or path where one road is split into two.

(figurative) A fork.

(by abstraction, from the tool shape) A point where a waterway, such as a river or other stream, splits and flows into two (or more) different directions.

One of the parts into which anything is furcated or divided; a prong; a branch of a stream, a road, etc.; a barbed point, as of an arrow.

A point in time where one has to make a decision between two life paths.

(metonymically) Either of the (figurative) paths thus taken.

Process (software development, content management, data management) A departure from having a single source of truth (SSOT), sometimes intentionally but usually unintentionally.

(metonymically) Any of the pieces/versions (of software, content, or data sets) thus created.

(software) The launch of one or more separate software development efforts based upon a modified copy of an existing project, especially in free and open-source software.

The splitting of the coverage of a topic (within a corpus of content) into two or more pieces.

(cryptocurrency) A split in a blockchain resulting from protocol disagreements, or a branch of the blockchain resulting from such a split.

(chess) The simultaneous attack of two adversary pieces with one single attacking piece (especially a knight).

The crotch. en

(colloquial) A forklift.

Either of the blades of a forklift (or, in plural, the set of blades), on which the goods to be raised are loaded.

In a bicycle or motorcycle, the portion of the frameset holding the front wheel, allowing the rider to steer and balance, also called front fork.

Horse tack The upper front brow of a saddle bow, connected in the tree by the two saddle bars to the cantle on the other end.

(obsolete) A gallows.

(mining) The bottom of a sump into which the water of a mine drains.

(ambitransitive) To divide into two or more branches or copies.

To spawn a new child process by duplicating the existing process.

To launch a separate software development effort based upon a modified copy of an existing software project, especially in free and open-source software.

To create a copy of a distributed version control repository.

(transitive) To move with a fork (as hay or food).

To kick someone in the crotch.

(intransitive) To shoot into blades, as corn does.

(transitive) fuck

To bale a shaft dry.

An instrument consisting of a handle with a shank terminating in two or more prongs or tines, which are usually of metal, parallel and slightly curved; - used for piercing, holding, taking up, or pitching anything.

Anything furcate or like a fork in shape, or furcate at the extremity; as, a tuning fork.

One of the parts into which anything is furcated or divided; a prong; a branch of a stream, a road, etc.; a barbed point, as of an arrow.

The place where a division or a union occurs; the angle or opening between two branches or limbs; as, the fork of a river, a tree, or a road.

The gibbet.

To shoot into blades, as corn.

To divide into two or more branches; as, a road, a tree, or a stream forks.

To raise, or pitch with a fork, as hay; to dig or turn over with a fork, as the soil.

Cutlery used for serving and eating food

The act of branching out or dividing into branches

A part of a forked or branching shape;

An agricultural tool used for lifting or digging; has a handle and metal prongs

The angle formed by the inner sides of the legs where they join the human trunk

Lift with a pitchfork;

Place under attack with one's own pieces, of two enemy pieces

Divide into two or more branches so as to form a fork;

Shape like a fork;