Software is present in all industrial processes and products. The ability to use, understand, and evolve the processes and devices that run our industry relies on the ability to access, understand, and evolve the software that controls them. Industry heavily depends on software.
Software Heritage will provide a universal, vendor-neutral, persistent reference software archive. On this foundation, a wealth of new applications will emerge, improving all aspects of the software process, and leading to better software for everybody.
A universal software warehouse
Because the value of software cannot be known in advance, we do not make distinctions and collect all software that is publicly available in source code form.
Because some software components need to be preserved for decades, we do not throw away anything that we have collected.
The map of the stars
Building the universal software archive is like drawing the map of the stars.
Using Software Heritage, industry will be able to safely navigate through the mass of all available software. Spotting and fixing vulnerabilities will become easier, supply-chain management will be streamlined.
The sky is the limit.
Persistent unique references
Because industry cannot afford to lose track of any part of its source code, we track software origin, history, and evolution.
Software Heritage will provide unique software identifiers, intrinsically bound to software components, ensuring persistent traceability across future development and organizational changes.
You can help
We plan to collect and preserve all publicly available source code. The Software Heritage archive will support industrial needs such as provenance tracking, long-term archival, and the preparation of software bills of materials.
If you experience some of these needs, you’re welcome to support our mission.