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I want to cite software in the following format using BibTeX:

[author], [software name], [version number], [year], available at [URL]

How can I do this?

inavda
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SIMHA
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    Welcome to TeX.SE! The title of your posting mentions BibTeX, yet you've tagged both "bibtex" and "biblatex", which are two different systems. Please advise which system you intend to use. If it's BibTeX, please also indicate which bibliography style you employ. – Mico Jul 10 '15 at 07:21
  • i use bibtex and bibliography style is IEEEtran.sty – SIMHA Jul 10 '15 at 07:24
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    Bibliography style files end in .bst, not .sty. What's the argument of the \bibliographystyle instruction in your document? – Mico Jul 10 '15 at 07:27
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    @Mico I would rather say that BibTeX and the biblatex package are intrinsically different. The former is a program that processes a .bib file, when the latter is a LaTeX package. One can thus use both together (even if biber is often recommended over BibTeX - ymmv though). Whatever it be, the bibliographic style is however an important information to provide. – ebosi Jun 09 '17 at 20:02
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    @ebo - I used the term "system" in a deliberately not very precise way. (I am aware that BibTeX is an executable program and that biblatex is a LaTeX package...) The purpose of my comment was purely to elicit more usable information from the OP. I'm afraid I wasn't particularly successful, though. :-( – Mico Jun 09 '17 at 20:15
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    @Mico I of course supposed it was the case. It's just that the whole biblatex, bibtex, biber, natbib thing used to confuse me so much that since I got the difference I tend to engage in proselytizing that particular question (sometimes too much?!) (-; – ebosi Jun 09 '17 at 23:12

2 Answers2

34

This answer is an adapted copy of the original one provided by Pascal on SuperUser. It is copied here as a community wiki for archival purpose.

If you use the package biblatex, you can thus use the @software entry- type in your database:

@software{hadoop,
  author = {{Apache Software Foundation}},
  title = {Hadoop},
  url = {https://hadoop.apache.org},
  version = {0.20.2},
  date = {2010-02-19},
}

Produces

Apache Software Foundation. Hadoop. Version 0.20.2. Feb. 19, 2010. URL: https://hadoop.apache.org

ebosi
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    For some reason I'm getting Package biblatex Warning: No driver for entry type 'software'. Using fallback driver on input line 191.? It seems to be outputting the correct output but still giving a warning – JMY1000 Nov 30 '19 at 04:45
  • @JMY1000 Thanks for your comment. I suggest you ask a separate question if you want help on you issue (potentially back-referencing to this question), so that it can benefit others too. – ebosi Dec 01 '19 at 19:00
  • Unfortunately, this entry type seems to be ignored when used for separated sections of the bibliography (using the keywords trick). (with biblatex 2017/11/21 v3.9) – kebs Feb 12 '20 at 14:42
  • What I found particularly useful about this was the fact that I can force Apache Software Foundation to not be abbreviated as A. S. Foundation by using curly braces around the foundation name: author = {{Apache Software Foundation}} – hlongmore Jan 01 '23 at 12:07
18

How about

@misc{blabla,
  author = {author name},
  title = {software name (version ...)},
  year  = {year},
  url   = {url},
}

I think that would be completely valid. You could also use the note field to add information.

LnZ
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Thomas Weise
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