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. See also logic bomb.