upstreams

1. 1
   noun

   Plural of upstream.

   Linux distributions often carry patches that have not yet been accepted by their upstreams.

   A fork with several upstreams has to merge changes from each of them.

   Note

   A plural that counts places or parties rather than directions. On a river, the upstreams are the stretches lying toward the source. In software, a project built on several others has several upstreams, meaning the separate groups of original developers who maintain each piece. The adjective upstream, meaning against the current, never takes an -s. Only the noun can be plural.

2. 2
   verb

   Third-person singular simple present of upstream.

   Our team lead upstreams every patch so the wider community benefits from it.

   The vendor routinely upstreams its driver improvements rather than keeping them in a private fork.

   Note

   One spelling serves two quite different verbs, and an object tells you which. With an object, it belongs to software: a developer upstreams a patch or a library by getting the original developers to accept it, maintain it and distribute it. Without an object, it is the physical verb meaning to stream upward. The same spelling also serves as the plural noun, where it names things rather than actions.

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