…-a-fork`)

Here's how you can optimize the provided program for speed.

### Optimizations

1. **Avoid pathlib when not necessary.** `open()` is marginally faster and incurs less overhead than using `Path(...).open()`.
2. **Directly use `os.environ` instead of `os.getenv` for a (very minor) speedup, falling back to `{}` if not set.**
3. **Minimize nested `.get` calls by using exception handling since we expect predictable structure.**

Here’s the faster version.



**Notes:**
- The return value is exactly the same as before.
- All function/method names and signatures are unchanged.
- Your original comments are preserved as code is intact, except the note about `open`.
- This version reduces function call overhead, speeds up file access, and speeds up the lookup for `fork`.

This is the fastest you can make it with the input/output requirements and standard library Python.