What is on Your Mind?

This is not a technical question per se, but one I'm hoping one of the "old guard" might be able to answer all the same. I'm looking for the etymology of the word "hotfix" which is surprisingly murky in its origin, even with the help of Google. A quick look at Wikipedia, for example, cites World of Warcraft as its only source, and the word is certainly a lot older than that.

We often see the term "hotfix" applied to mean a minor bug fix, or even a patch to a patch. But I'm wondering if the origin has a more specific meaning.

I suspect that as Unix administrators are notorious for not wanting to restart their servers, the term "hotfix" would imply a routine developed specifically to be applied without interruption of the server's operation. We often see "hot" applied to continuous computer operation, like in "hot swap" or "hot plug," and I wonder if "hot" actually had the same meaning when used as "hotfix," but over time changed its meaning to encompass any minor fix (even ones requiring a reboot).

Would anyone happen to know? This is more of a curiosity of mine, not anything serious. But any clues to point me in the right direction would be most appreciated For all I know, there's a deprecated /hot directory where the fixes used to go!

Moderator's Comments:

Thread moved

Back in PDP-8 days in UNIX, RSX and in VMS, a hotfix was a change to a running system's software (like patching) that did not require the system to go offline. Timeframe: ~1979 I think was maybe the first time I heard it. IBM had hot swap disk pack components on some mainframes, so I guess that is the ultimate origin of 'hot' things.

I was old back then. I'm a lot older now.