Sorcerer's Apprentice mode
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In computing, Sorcerer's Apprentice mode (named for 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 multiple brooms, all of which continue to fetch water and dramatically compound the problem.
Compare broadcast storm, network meltdown, software laser, ARMM, infinite loop.
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.