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Release Notes

Notes for every published SOW release, newest first.

Every published SOW version gets a page here: what changed, what it means for existing repositories, and where to read more.

SOW v0.2.0: Single-Payload Repositories

SOW v0.2.0 establishes the single-payload layout, explicit publication targets, retention, GC, and RPM compatibility exports.
By Ruohang Feng |

Documentation published: 2026-08-08 · Version: sow 0.2.0 · Release: GitHub draft

SOW is a self-contained package repository manager from Pigsty. One static Go binary creates and maintains APT (DEB) and YUM (RPM) repositories on Linux and macOS without invoking createrepo_c, dpkg-scanpackages, or reprepro.

The v0.2.0 layout

Managed repositories now have one canonical payload owner. Every package body appears once beneath pool/; dists/ contains metadata-only APT and RPM views. rpm-md reaches the root pool through a computed relative href, while APT uses archive-root Filename values.

This replaces the view-local hardlink C2 prototype. That prototype was never a public product release. The public version history is v0.1.0 followed by v0.2.0; names such as sow.cli/v1 and sow/v3 are wire/schema identifiers, not product versions.

Default dnf reposync rejects the canonical parent-relative href. v0.2.0 keeps the single-payload repository as the source of truth and adds an explicit compatibility path:

sow export rpm-leaf el9 x86_64 /srv/export/el9-x86_64

Publication and lifecycle

Managed workspaces can define filesystem and S3-compatible r2 targets, then publish a verified Generation with sow publish TARGET. Attempts are resumable; pre-commit attempts can be explicitly abandoned, while post-commit recovery is forward-only.

sow retain creates and removes explicit retained-Generation roots. Local sow gc collects only payloads unreachable from all safety roots. Target GC is provider-specific: filesystem deletion is conditional after grace and absence checks; R2 is deliberately report-only and never deletes objects.

Verification boundary

The client matrix covers AlmaLinux 8/9/10 DNF, CentOS 7 YUM, and Debian 12/13 APT. The Integration workflow also exercises real APT/DNF clients and S3-compatible publication against pinned MinIO. A provider integration test is not proof that a particular public R2 account or CDN is configured; hosted deployment remains a separate check.

The current v0.2.0 draft contains Linux and macOS archives for amd64 and arm64, 1PGSTY Linux RPM and DEB packages, and SHA256SUMS. Public availability begins only after an operator publishes that draft. SOW does not build repository payload packages, publish a container image, coordinate multiple writers, act as a CDN, or generate modulemd, SQLite repodata, zchunk, or source-package indexes.

Start at the Quick Start, review the design history, or use the CLI reference.