Solarsoft is a store-and-forward system that makes use of rsync, csh and other UNIX tools to distribute the software to a wide variety of platforms. Solarsoft predates CVS and most other collaborative development systems; hence, it does not provide direct support for many features that today would be considered necessary, such as software versioning. The use of Solarsoft has grown to include calibration data and even complete catalog indices for some instruments, as well as the scientific software.