Cruft is computing jargon for code, data, or software of poor quality. The term is also used for the fluff that accumulates on computer equipment.
When referring to URLs, 'cruft' is the parts which are only relevant or meaningful to the people who created the site, such as implementation details of the computer system which serves the page. Examples of URL cruft include file extensions such as .php or .html, and internal organisational details such as /public/ or /~users/john/work/drafts/.
Cruft can also be used to describe the unused and out of date hardware and computing paraphernalia that is collected by geeks either through upgrading, inheritance or simple acquisition, both deliberate and through circumstance.
The origin of the term is uncertain, but it may be derived from Harvard University Cruft Laboratory, which was the Harvard Physics Department's radar lab during World War II. As late as the early 1990s, unused technical equipment could be seen stacked in front of Cruft Hall's windows. According to the student body, if the place filled with useless machinery is called Cruft Hall, the machinery itself must be cruft. This image of "discarded technical clutter" quickly migrated from hardware to software.
Another possible origin is that the word evokes the words crust, fluff and scruffy. The latter word is the source of similar words in Jamaican English such as cruff, meaning scurfy, coarse or uncouth.
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