## New Features

- Added a `--refresh-channel` argument to `hab pkg build` and a `-f` argument to the `hab studio` commands.

  You can use these arguments to set a refresh channel that Habitat uses when downloading dependencies from the `core` origin. The current default refresh channel is `stable`. As we move forward with LTS releases, the default will become the latest LTS channel. 

  Use the `--refresh-channel` argument to build a Chef Habitat plan against an older refresh channel. For example, if you needed to build your plan against the `stable` channel after the LTS channel becomes the default, then you would set `--refresh-channel` to `stable`.

## Bug Fixes

- When installing packages, Habitat now explicitly changes the access permissions (chmod) of the package directory to 0755. This fixes a bug where systems with a umask of 0077 would install packages that service users can't execute.

- Chef Habitat can now handle a node that restarts during a leader election and misses the rumor that the election has finished. Habitat now sends an election rumor to inform it that its election term has finished so it doesn't wait forever for the election to complete.

- Chef Habitat now verifies that a member is dead when it receives a rumor that the member is confirmed dead but was previously considered alive. Habitat sends a probe ping to validate that it truly is confirmed. This fixes a scenario where a node loses network connectivity and thinks all members are dead, then propagates false rumors after reconnecting to the network.

## Backward Incompatibilities

- Chef Habitat no longer includes support for Windows 7. Habitat uses a variety of open-source, low-level libraries and some of these libraries no longer call the outdated Win32 API functions that Windows 7 expects. To keep Chef Habitat up to date and secure, we need to keep these open-source dependencies up to date.

- The Chef Habitat Builder public SAAS no longer hosts package builds and all `hab bldr job` commands are no longer supported.