Tags: cli

Every write command inside a Repository commits an application-level Operation to that Repository’s SQLite database before it produces any external file side effect. That record is what makes crash recovery possible — and once the Operation reaches a …

SOW provides one export subcommand: sow export rpm-leaf. It creates an external, standalone RPM repository whose repodata uses local pool/... hrefs. Synopsis sow export rpm-leaf DIST ARCH DIR [--hardlink] [-C|--workdir DIR] [-r|--repo NAME] [--json] …

sow gc has two deliberately separate modes. With no positional target it collects unreachable local pool payloads. With TARGET it maintains one configured publication target. Synopsis sow gc [-C|--workdir DIR] [-r|--repo NAME] [-T|--timeout DUR | …

sow retain manages explicit local Generation roots. retain add can freeze only the current Built Generation; after later builds make it historical, its required package payloads remain protected. Synopsis sow retain add GENERATION [-C|--workdir DIR] …

sow publish delivers one Repository’s current Built Generation to a named target from the targets: map in sow.yml. The target binds its Repository and provider; the command does not accept --repo or --dist. Synopsis sow publish TARGET [--abort | …

sow changes compares Built Generations. It reports physical Repository-relative file changes; it does not show unbuilt Desired changes and is not a remote transaction protocol. Synopsis sow changes [BASE_GENERATION] [-C|--workdir DIR] [-r|--repo …

sow check is the deep read-only gate for a managed Repository. It hashes bytes, validates state, reconstructs expected views, and verifies declared signatures. It never repairs, builds, recovers an Operation, or takes the write lock. Synopsis sow …

sow build is the explicit Desired-to-Built convergence command. It acquires the Repository write lock, recovers any decidable unfinished Operation, renders and verifies a complete Generation, then switches protocol pointers last. Synopsis sow build …

sow status is the cheap Repository health query. It reads state but does not hash files, verify signatures, recover Operations, build metadata, or take the write lock. Synopsis sow status [-C|--workdir DIR] [-r|--repo NAME] [-d|--dist NAME]... …

sow where answers which Dists in the Workspace still carry one Package Object. It is read-only, searches every Repository by default, and takes no write lock. Synopsis sow where PACKAGE [-C|--workdir DIR] [-r|--repo NAME] [-d|--dist NAME]... [--json] …

sow show resolves one package reference in the selected Repository and prints the complete Package Object. It is read-only and takes no write lock. Synopsis sow show PACKAGE [-C|--workdir DIR] [-r|--repo NAME] [-d|--dist NAME]... [--json] Flag …

sow ls is a read-only query over Package Objects and Dist Membership. It shows what each selected Dist should contain and whether that membership is present in the current Built Generation. Synopsis sow ls [-C|--workdir DIR] [-r|--repo NAME] …

sow rm takes packages out of the Desired Membership of the Dists you select and, by default, rebuilds the affected indexes immediately. It does not delete bytes from pool/ — membership and content are separate concepts, and reclamation is the …

Every command that produces data accepts --json. The output is a single line on stdout carrying a versioned envelope, so you can pipe it straight into jq without worrying about which command produced it. sow status --json …

sow add is the main write path. It parses the packages you point at, derives their format and architecture from the package headers, applies the Dist’s membership policy, and — unless you pass --skip — rebuilds every affected index before it returns. …

Every sow command exits with one of seven codes. They are stable, they are the same for every command, and they are meant to be branched on in scripts — the distinction between “this failed” and “this was correctly refused” is the whole point of …

A Dist is a named set of packages in exactly one format (rpm or deb) inside one Repository. It is what a client points at. A Repository can hold RPM and DEB Dists side by side; they share one pool/ but render into completely separate dists/ subtrees. …

Each top-level command has its own page. Command groups such as config, repo, dist, retain, export, and log document their subcommands together. The built-in sow help output is the syntax authority. These pages add selection rules, state transitions, …

A Repository owns one pool/, one dists/, one SQLite database and one private state directory. It is the boundary of locking, transaction recovery, Generation numbering and Changesets — nothing is deduplicated across Repositories and no …

This section is the stable contract for configuration fields, package references, paths, exit codes, JSON, platforms, and integrations. CLI syntax and state transitions live in Commands; use Get Started for the operating model. Output examples show …

sow rm, sow show, and sow where all take a PACKAGE argument. This page defines what you may write there. The same grammar applies to all three commands; only the handling of an ambiguous name differs. Nothing here applies to sow add, which takes …

sow config has two read-only subcommands. config check is the full preflight over sow.yml — run it after every hand edit and in CI. config show prints the configuration SOW actually computed, which is where you confirm that defaults, inherited …

Plain mode builds a flat repository in one directory. It does not read sow.yml, create a workspace, or keep a database. Prepare a directory Put RPM and/or DEB files at the directory top level. sow create does not recurse and does not move or rename …

sow init creates the root sow.yml and the private .sow/ state directory that make a directory a Workspace. It is also the convergence command for a config you wrote by hand: if sow.yml already declares Repositories and Dists, init materializes the …

sow create turns a directory that already contains .rpm and .deb files into a flat repository by writing indexes next to the packages. It is the whole of Plain mode: no sow.yml, no SQLite, no Workspace discovery. This page covers the one-pass scan …