SoftWare Hash IDentifier
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| Full name | SoftWare Hash IDentifier |
|---|---|
| Acronym | SWHID |
| Introduced | April 2025 |
| Example | swh:1:dir:df32c75242bf8d797ccd43af8ce8e294f35cd8fd |
| Website | https://www.swhid.org/ |
The Software Hash Identifier (SWHID) is a persistent identifier used to uniquely identify a software artifact and its various versions. It is a standard similar to the DOI but tailored specifically for software, providing finer granularity and compatibility with versioning models such as git.
It is used in software archiving by platforms like Software Heritage, in research it is integrated with repositories such as HAL or Zenodo.
Since April 2025, this digital identifier system has been formalized as the ISO 18670 standard [1]. Télécom Paris has welcomed this new standard with interest citing its benefits for the traceability of software affected by vulnerabilities [2], UNESCO has recognised its interest in the reproducibility and long-term accessibility of software [3].
SWHID is an open standard licensed under the Community Specification License[4].
Format
The SWHID has the following syntax:
swh:<scheme_version>:<object_type>:<object_id>[;qualifiers]Example
Version 3.0 of the Linux kernel, released in July 2011, has the following SWHID:
swh:1:dir:df32c75242bf8d797ccd43af8ce8e294f35cd8fd
History
The acronym SWHID originally referred to "Software Heritage Identifiers" used to catalog software artifacts in the early days of the Software Heritage archive[5]. It later evolved into an open standard through a dedicated working group[6] and was standardized as ISO in April 2025 under the more general name "Software Hash Identifier"[7]
References
- ^ "ISO/IEC 18670:2025". ISO. Retrieved 2025-05-24.
- ^ "Une avancée significative pour l'infrastructure numérique mondiale : La norme ISO/IEC 18670 est désormais officielle". Télécom Paris (in French). Retrieved 2025-05-24.
- ^ "Archiving open software as human heritage". UNESCO. Retrieved 2025-05-24.
- ^ "Copyright Section of SWHID Specification v1.2". Retrieved 2025-05-24.
- ^ "SoftWare Hash IDentifier (SWHID)". Software Heritage. Retrieved 2025-05-24.
- ^ "SWHID working group". Retrieved 2025-05-24.
- ^ "ISO/IEC 18670:2025". ISO. Retrieved 2025-05-24.