The Software Heritage Filesystem (SwhFS): Integrating Source Code Archival with Development

Thibault Allancon, Antoine Pietri, Stefano Zacchiroli

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contributionpeer-review

Abstract

We introduce the Software Heritage filesystem (SwhFS), a user-space filesystem that integrates large-scale open source software archival with development workflows. SwhFS provides a POSIX filesystem view of Software Heritage, the largest public archive of software source code and version control system (VCS) development history. Using SwhFS, developers can quickly 'checkout' any of the 2 billion commits archived by Software Heritage, even after they disappear from their previous known location and without incurring the performance cost of repository cloning. SwhFS works across unrelated repositories and different VCS technologies. Other source code artifacts archived by Software Heritage (individual source code files and trees, releases, and branches) can also be accessed using common programming tools and custom scripts, as if they were locally available. A screencast of SwhFS is available online at dx.doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.4531411.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationProceedings - 2021 IEEE/ACM 43rd International Conference on Software Engineering
Subtitle of host publicationCompanion Proceedings, ICSE-Companion 2021
PublisherIEEE Computer Society
Pages45-48
Number of pages4
ISBN (Electronic)9781665412193
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 29 Nov 2021
Externally publishedYes
Event43rd IEEE/ACM International Conference on Software Engineering: Companion Proceedings, ICSE-Companion 2021 - Virtual, Online, Spain
Duration: 25 May 202128 May 2021

Publication series

NameProceedings - International Conference on Software Engineering
ISSN (Print)0270-5257

Conference

Conference43rd IEEE/ACM International Conference on Software Engineering: Companion Proceedings, ICSE-Companion 2021
Country/TerritorySpain
CityVirtual, Online
Period25/05/2128/05/21

Keywords

  • FUSE
  • digital libraries
  • digital preservation
  • filesystem
  • open source
  • source code
  • version control system

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