Sorcerer's Apprentice mode

Sorcerer's Apprentice mode (named from Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's Der Zauberlehrling[?] via the Walt Disney film Fantasia) is a bug in a protocol where, under some circumstances, the receipt of a message causes multiple messages to be sent, each of which, when received, triggers the same bug. Used especially of such behaviour caused by bounce message[?] loops in electronic mail software.

In the poem and film a sorcerer's apprentice, left alone, tries out a spell to make a broom fetch water for him. Unfortunately he has forgotten the spell that makes the broom stop. In desperation, the house filling with water, he attacks the broom with an axe; but it simply splits into two brooms, both of which continue to fetch water.

Compare broadcast storm[?], network meltdown[?], software laser[?], ARMM[?], infinite loop.

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Article based on Sorcerer's Apprentice mode (http://foldoc.doc.ic.ac.uk/foldoc/foldoc.cgi?query=sorcerer%27s+apprentice+mode) at FOLDOC (http://www.foldoc.org), used with permission.