Article · Wikipedia archive · Last revised May 27, 2026

Downstream (software development)

In software development, downstream refers to a direction away from the original authors or maintainers of software that is distributed as source code, and is a qualification of a patch. For example, a patch sent downstream is offered to the developers or maintainers of a forked software project. If accepted, the developers or maintainers will include the patch in their software fork, either immediately or in a future release. Sometimes, "downstream" is used in contexts in which the developer does not have control, perhaps due to its inclusion as part other software or as part of a system.

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In software development, downstream refers to a direction away from the original authors or maintainers of software that is distributed as source code, and is a qualification of a patch. For example, a patch sent downstream is offered to the developers or maintainers of a forked software project. If accepted, the developers or maintainers will include the patch in their software fork, either immediately or in a future release. Sometimes, "downstream" is used in contexts in which the developer does not have control, perhaps due to its inclusion as part other software or as part of a system.1

For contrast, upstream refers to code sent toward the original development team.

See also

See also

References

References

  1. Wolf, Marty; Miller, Keith; Grodzinsky, Frances (2019-05-28). "On the Responsibility for Uses of Downstream Software". Computer Ethics - Philosophical Enquiry (CEPE) Proceedings. 2019 (1). doi:10.25884/7576-wd27. ISSN 2689-2782.