Editing Cruft (section)

==Software==
The [[FreeBSD]] handbook uses the term to refer to leftover or superseded [[object code]] that accumulates in a folder or directory when software is [[Compiler|recompiled]] and new [[executables]] and data files are produced.<ref>{{cite web | url=http://www.freebsd.org/doc/en/books/handbook/makeworld.html | title=20.4.16.6. What do I do if something goes wrong? | work=FreeBSD Handbook |edition=3rd | access-date=2007-08-18}}</ref> Such cruft, if required for the new executables to work properly, can cause the [[Berkeley Software Distribution|BSD]] equivalent of [[dependency hell]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://disfunksioneel.blogspot.co.uk/2011/04/linux-software-dependencies.html |title=A nice picture of (dependency) hell |type=blog |publisher=disfunksioneel |access-date=30 May 2018}}</ref> The word is also used to describe instances of unnecessary, leftover or just poorly written [[source code]] in a computer program that is then uselessly, or even harmfully, compiled into object code.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://searchsoftwarequality.techtarget.com/definition/cruft |title=Cruft |publisher=TechTarget |access-date=30 May 2018}}</ref>

Cruft accumulation may result in [[technical debt]], which can subsequently make adding new features or modifying existing features—even to improve performance—more difficult and time-consuming.

In the context of [[Internet]] or [[World Wide Web|Web]] addresses ([[Uniform Resource Locator]]s or "URLs"), cruft refers to the [[character (computing)|character]]s 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 [[filename extension]]s such as ''.php'' or ''.html'', and internal organizational details such as ''/public/'' or ''/Users/john/work/drafts/''.<ref name="T B-L">{{cite web | url=http://www.w3.org/Provider/Style/URI | title=Hypertext Style: Cool URIs don't change |last=Berners-Lee |first=Tim |work=W3C Style |year=1998 |access-date=2007-08-18 | quote={{nowrap|What makes a cool URI? /}} {{nowrap|A [[Cool URIs don't change|cool URI]] is one which does not change. /}} {{nowrap|What sorts of URI change? /}} {{nowrap|''URIs don't change: people change them''.}}}}</ref>