chain: 1. vi. [orig. from BASIC's `CHAIN' statement] To hand
off execution to a child or successor without going through the OS
command interpreter that invoked it. The state of the parent
program is lost and there is no returning to it. Though this
facility used to be common on memory-limited micros and is still
widely supported for backward compatibility, the jargon usage is
semi-obsolescent; in particular, most Unix programmers will think of
this as an exec. Oppose the more modern `subshell'. 2. n. A
series of linked data areas within an operating system or
application. `Chain rattling' is the process of repeatedly running
through the linked data areas searching for one which is of interest
to the executing program. The implication is that there is a very
large number of links on the chain.
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