Editing Upstream (software development) (section)

{{short description|Concept in software development}}
{{dicdef|date=May 2023}}
In [[software development]], when software has been [[Fork (software development)|forked]] or uses a chain of [[Library (software)|libraries]]/[[Dependency (software)|dependencies]], '''upstream''' refers to an issue that occurs in software related to the chain. It is the direction that is toward the [[Software engineering|original authors]] or [[Maintenance mode|maintainers]] of [[Computer software|software]]. It is usually used in the context of a version, a [[Software bug|bug]], or a [[Patch (computing)|patch]].

Upstream development allows other distributions to benefit from it when they pick up the future release or merge recent (or all) upstream patches.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Staying Close to Upstream Projects :: Fedora Docs |url=https://docs.fedoraproject.org/en-US/package-maintainers/Staying_Close_to_Upstream_Projects/ |access-date=2022-01-18 |website= |publisher=Fedora Project}}</ref> Likewise, the original authors (maintaining upstream) can benefit from contributions that originate from custom distributions, if their users send patches upstream.

The term also pertains to bugs; responsibility for a bug is said to lie upstream when it is not caused through the distribution's [[porting]], non-upstream modification or integration efforts.