According to NetBSD manpage, vfork(2) originated from 3BSD. In the FreeBSD's manpage, it is mentioned that vfork() first appeared in 2.9BSD. Since 3BSD has a manpage for vfork() and it is released three years earlier, the correct one should be 3BSD. Please see the following discussion: https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Talk:Fork_(system_call)&oldid=651325282#Origin_of_vfork.28.29
A commit references this bug: Author: jhb Date: Mon Apr 6 20:40:02 UTC 2015 New revision: 281170 URL: https://svnweb.freebsd.org/changeset/base/281170 Log: vfork() first appeared in 3BSD which pre-dates 2.9BSD. Verified via the copy of 3BSD on disc 1 of "The CSRG Archives". PR: 198612 MFC after: 1 week Changes: head/lib/libc/sys/vfork.2
Thanks for the pointer!
It would be nice to see this updated on the wikipedia. Has someone suggested an edit?
Hello. Thank you for correcting the man page. The wikipedia entry for vfork already says "It originated in the 3BSD version of Unix...", so it is already correct, IMHO.
I'm referring to the fact that it has now been corrected, unless I am reading this wrong, in our documentation. However it notes this on wikipedia: "It is mentioned that vfork() was first appeared in 3BSD, but FreeBSD's manual page claims that vfork() was first appeared in 2.9BSD..." With the correction, it appears that wikipedia's statement is now untrue.
Oh, sorry, I should have clarified things. The above link is just a wikipedia "talk page". It is not a "wikipedia article". Wikipedia editors use talk pages to discuss and improve the article, and the above link is just a discussion between two wikipedia editors. Talk pages are only used by the editors, the readers can't see talk pages, unless they click the "Talk" button at top of the article. Talk pages may be full of incorrect and false information (as it is in this case, but since the above discussion is now archived, it can't be changed). The article itself is here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fork_(system_call) which only states that "It originated in the 3BSD version of Unix..." and does not talk about FreeBSD at all.
A commit references this bug: Author: jhb Date: Tue Jun 2 15:02:30 UTC 2015 New revision: 283912 URL: https://svnweb.freebsd.org/changeset/base/283912 Log: MFC 281170: vfork() first appeared in 3BSD which pre-dates 2.9BSD. Verified via the copy of 3BSD on disc 1 of "The CSRG Archives". PR: 198612 Changes: _U stable/10/ stable/10/lib/libc/sys/vfork.2 _U stable/8/lib/libc/ _U stable/8/lib/libc/sys/ stable/8/lib/libc/sys/vfork.2 _U stable/9/lib/libc/ _U stable/9/lib/libc/sys/ stable/9/lib/libc/sys/vfork.2