) noun
In computers, the linking together of two or more entities so that they are dependent upon one another for operation. In programming, two or more programs are said to be chained if the first program causes the second program to begin executing. In addition, program statements are said to be chained if each statement, except for the first, relies on the previous statement for input. With batch files, two or more batch files are said to be chained if the completion of the first batch file causes the second batch file to begin executing. With data storage, the term chained applies to two or more individual units of storage that are linked together. For example, a single file on a disk may actually be stored on several different sectors of the disk, each of which points to the next sector containing a piece of that file. These sectors are said to be chained together, or, more literally, to be considered a chain of clusters.