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Cruft

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Cruft may also refer to unused and out-of-date computer paraphernalia, collected through upgrading, inheritance, or simple acquisition, both deliberate and through circumstance. This accumulated hardware, however, often has benefit when IT systems administrators, technicians, and the like have need
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later explained that this was meant in the sense of "detritus, that which needs to be swept up and thrown out. The dictionary has no definition for 'crufty,' a word I didn't hear until some years later". Cruft can also refer to alumni who remain socially active at MIT.
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for critical replacement parts. An unused machine or component similar to a production unit could allow near-immediate restoration of the failed unit, as opposed to waiting for a shipped replacement.
61:(MIT). In the 1959 edition of the club's dictionary, it was defined as "that which magically amounds in the Clubroom just before you walk in to clean up. In other words, rubbage". Its author 139:
that are relevant or meaningful only to the people who created the site, such as implementation details of the computer system which serves the page. Examples of URL cruft could include
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word for anything that is left over, redundant and getting in the way. It is used particularly for defective, superseded, useless, superfluous, or dysfunctional elements in
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and data files are produced. Such cruft, if required for the new executables to work properly, can cause the
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in a computer program that is then uselessly, or even harmfully, compiled into object code.
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Around 1958, the term was used in the sense of "garbage" by students frequenting the
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Jargon word for redundant, obtrusive material, originally used in computing
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The origin of the term is uncertain, but it may be derived from
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This article is about a computing term. For other uses, see
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that accumulates in a folder or directory when software is
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handbook uses the term to refer to leftover or superseded
242:(25th Anniversary ed.). O'Reilly Media. p. 8. 185:, the automatic removal of unnecessary code by compilers 314:"Bronze Tablet Erected in Cruft Memorial Laboratory" 339:"20.4.16.6. What do I do if something goes wrong?" 495: 481:which includes coverage of the "cruft" concept. 151:, and internal organizational details such as 271:"AN ABRIDGED DICTIONARY of the TMRC LANGUAGE" 446: 406: 239:Hackers: Heroes of the Computer Revolution 409:"Hypertext Style: Cool URIs don't change" 44: 475:In the Beginning...was the Command Line 294:. Massachusetts Institute of Technology 504:Pejorative terms related to technology 496: 265: 438:URIs don't change: people change them 364:"A nice picture of (dependency) hell" 59:Massachusetts Institute of Technology 400: 261: 259: 232: 162: 13: 14: 520: 485:Verity Stob's Index of Cruftidity 468: 256: 116:Cruft accumulation may result in 135:or "URLs"), cruft refers to the 431:is one which does not change. / 458:The Jargon File, version 4.4.7 378: 356: 331: 306: 284: 226: 1: 219: 7: 434:What sorts of URI change? / 171: 80: 10: 525: 40: 18: 407:Berners-Lee, Tim (1998). 133:Uniform Resource Locators 424:What makes a cool URI? / 157:/Users/john/work/drafts/ 55:Tech Model Railroad Club 49:Harvard Cruft Laboratory 366:(blog). disfunksioneel 50: 21:Cruft (disambiguation) 509:Computing terminology 183:Dead-code elimination 48: 199:Muda (Japanese term) 141:filename extensions 489:Dr. Dobb's Journal 123:In the context of 71:Harvard University 51: 292:"Speaking MITese" 163:Computer hardware 35:computer software 516: 462: 461: 450: 444: 443: 441: 435: 432: 425: 420: 419: 404: 398: 397: 395: 393: 382: 376: 375: 373: 371: 360: 354: 353: 351: 350: 343:FreeBSD Handbook 335: 329: 328: 326: 324: 310: 304: 303: 301: 299: 288: 282: 281: 279: 277: 263: 254: 253: 230: 524: 523: 519: 518: 517: 515: 514: 513: 494: 493: 479:Neal Stephenson 471: 466: 465: 452: 451: 447: 436: 433: 426: 423: 417: 415: 405: 401: 391: 389: 384: 383: 379: 369: 367: 362: 361: 357: 348: 346: 337: 336: 332: 322: 320: 312: 311: 307: 297: 295: 290: 289: 285: 275: 273: 264: 257: 250: 231: 227: 222: 174: 165: 107:dependency hell 83: 43: 24: 17: 12: 11: 5: 522: 512: 511: 506: 492: 491: 482: 470: 469:External links 467: 464: 463: 445: 399: 377: 355: 345:(3rd ed.) 330: 318:thecrimson.com 305: 283: 255: 248: 224: 223: 221: 218: 217: 216: 211: 209:Non-coding DNA 206: 204:Spaghetti code 201: 196: 191: 189:Duplicate code 186: 180: 178:Software bloat 173: 170: 164: 161: 118:technical debt 105:equivalent of 82: 79: 57:(TMRC) at the 42: 39: 15: 9: 6: 4: 3: 2: 521: 510: 507: 505: 502: 501: 499: 490: 486: 483: 480: 477:– article by 476: 473: 472: 459: 455: 449: 442: 439: 430: 414: 410: 403: 387: 381: 365: 359: 344: 340: 334: 319: 315: 309: 293: 287: 272: 268: 267:Samson, Peter 262: 260: 251: 249:9781449393748 245: 241: 240: 235: 229: 225: 215: 212: 210: 207: 205: 202: 200: 197: 195: 194:Feature creep 192: 190: 187: 184: 181: 179: 176: 175: 169: 160: 158: 154: 150: 146: 142: 138: 134: 130: 126: 121: 119: 114: 112: 108: 104: 100: 96: 92: 88: 78: 76: 72: 67: 64: 60: 56: 47: 38: 36: 32: 28: 22: 457: 448: 437: 422: 416:. Retrieved 412: 402: 390:. Retrieved 388:. TechTarget 380: 368:. Retrieved 358: 347:. Retrieved 342: 333: 321:. Retrieved 317: 308: 296:. Retrieved 286: 274:. Retrieved 238: 234:Levy, Steven 228: 214:Vestigiality 166: 156: 152: 148: 144: 122: 115: 84: 75:World War II 68: 63:Peter Samson 52: 26: 25: 323:26 November 131:addresses ( 111:source code 99:executables 91:object code 498:Categories 418:2007-08-18 349:2007-08-18 220:References 137:characters 95:recompiled 413:W3C Style 269:(2005) . 454:"crufty" 429:cool URI 236:(2010). 172:See also 153:/public/ 143:such as 125:Internet 97:and new 81:Software 386:"Cruft" 87:FreeBSD 41:History 392:30 May 370:30 May 298:8 June 276:30 May 246:  31:jargon 149:.html 29:is a 27:Cruft 394:2018 372:2018 325:2014 300:2016 278:2018 244:ISBN 145:.php 85:The 487:at 155:or 147:or 129:Web 127:or 103:BSD 500:: 456:. 427:A 421:. 411:. 341:. 316:. 258:^ 159:. 77:. 37:. 460:. 440:. 396:. 374:. 352:. 327:. 302:. 280:. 252:. 23:.

Index

Cruft (disambiguation)
jargon
computer software

Tech Model Railroad Club
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Peter Samson
Harvard University
World War II
FreeBSD
object code
recompiled
executables
BSD
dependency hell
source code
technical debt
Internet
Web
Uniform Resource Locators
characters
filename extensions
Software bloat
Dead-code elimination
Duplicate code
Feature creep
Muda (Japanese term)
Spaghetti code
Non-coding DNA
Vestigiality

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