upstream - Wiktionary, the free dictionary (original) (raw)

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary

From up- + stream.

upstream (comparative further upstream or farther upstream, superlative furthest upstream or farthest upstream)

  1. In a direction against the flow of a current or stream of fluid (typically water); upriver.
  2. (figurative) Occurring earlier than something else; (also, usually, especially) being an influence on something else; causing a consequence for something else.
    Input entry is upstream of input validation in the runtime process.
    1. (oil industry) Involving exploration and pre-production rather than refining and selling.
    2. (computer networking) In the direction from the client to the server.
    3. (software) Maintained, owned, or associated with the original developers of the given software; in contrast to a modified version downstream.
      The outage was caused by an upstream error in a payments library.
      • 2013, Matthew Helmke, Ubuntu Unleashed 2013 Edition: Covering 12.10 and 13.04, Pearson Education:
        You can also check the upstream and/or Debian bug trackers for open and closed bugs and the upstream revision history or newer release(s).
      • 2012, Jono Bacon, The Art of Community: Building the New Age of Participation, O'Reilly Media, page 141:
        If the developer knows the bug is an upstream bug but does not know which bug it is in the upstream bug tracker, he can add an upstream task to the bug report.
      • 2008, Michael Dennis Scott, Scott on Outsourcing: Law and Practice, Aspen Publishers, page 198:
        Because a user generally does not know the pedigree of the open source, it cannot know whether an upstream developer used intellectual property belonging to a third party in developing that software.
      • 2002, Tony Mancill, Linux Routers: A Primer for Network Administrators, Prentice Hall, page 190:
        We'll walk through the steps to build FreeS/WAN using the upstream tarball.
    4. (biology) Towards the leading end (5′ end) of a DNA molecule.

in a direction opposite to flow

Biology : towards the 5' end of a DNA molecule

upstream (comparative further upstream or farther upstream, superlative furthest upstream or farthest upstream)

  1. Against the current.

against the flow

upstream (third-person singular simple present upstreams, present participle upstreaming, simple past and past participle upstreamed)

  1. (intransitive) To stream upward.
  2. (transitive, open-source software) To have (a software library, patch, etc.) accepted by the original developers of the related software, so that they maintain and distribute it.
    I'd be more than happy to upstream your patch.

upstream (plural upstreams)

  1. Part of the river towards the upstream direction.
    • 1957, Proceedings of the Iraqi Scientific Societies - Volumes 1-6 - Page 26‎[1]:
      The total depth of water at the upstream was measured by using a pointer attached to a carriage sitting on the water table walls.
  2. (open-source software) The original developers or maintainers of software.