question about claiming potentially abandoned namespaces on PyPI
Hi all, Apologies if this is not the proper channel for the following question. I have a project that I would like to post on PyPI that clashes with an existing project that I believe may be abandoned (https://pypi.org/project/toybox/#description). According to this PEP (https://www.python.org/dev/peps/pep-0541/) it appears that the appropriate course of action is to attempt to contact the owner of this namespace and find out if they will transfer ownership to me. In the section of the PEP that discusses prior art, there is a reference to cc'ing folks from npm when analogous issues arise over in JS land. It isn't clear to me from this PEP or its resolution what the proper procedure for pursuing ownership of a claimed, but possibly abandoned namespace is for PyPI. Is there an email address I should cc when contacting the namespace owner? How does one initiate an official request for an abandoned namespace? Thanks! Emma -- Emma Tosch PhD Candidate, College of Information & Computer Sciences University of Massachusetts Amherst etosch@cs.umass.edu http://cs.umass.edu/~etosch
Let me note upfront that I'm not anyone who has power in the Python community, on PyPI or distutils-sig. However, I can bring my example, confirming that what you describe works. It may be difficult, and I'm tempted to say, this is usually the case (just a gut feeling, really), that you'll find it difficult to contact the owners of a package on PyPI. I had the necessity, though, and it worked out. Here's how: - I tried to find the owner of the "pyclean" package. There was no repository link, nor an email on PyPI in the package description, etc. - I tried to use the same username on GitHub, Bitbucket and GitLab, also for Twitter. - I wasn't immediately lucky, so I did a web search with the (I think) name (or username) combined with the keyword "python". I was lucky! - I found the person, I found the corresponding user name on GitHub - I openen a GitHub issue on an (unrelated) repository [1] of him, and contacted him via Twitter in addition; after a few days he responded. - I explained my plan for the Open Source project and he agreed to hand over the package name. - Following the recommandations of the "pyroma" package I proposed to only _add_ me as an owner, i.e. _not_ replace him. - I also added two other owners, so in feature it will be easier to contact one of the package owner. Hope that explanation helps, Peter [1] https://github.com/felixcarmona/pyhttp/issues/2 P.S.: Let me express my sincere thanks Felix Carmona again for the helpful cooperation! Am So., 5. Mai 2019 um 01:49 Uhr schrieb Emma Tosch <etosch@fastmail.fm>:
Hi all,
Apologies if this is not the proper channel for the following question.
I have a project that I would like to post on PyPI that clashes with an existing project that I believe may be abandoned (https://pypi.org/project/toybox/#description). According to this PEP (https://www.python.org/dev/peps/pep-0541/) it appears that the appropriate course of action is to attempt to contact the owner of this namespace and find out if they will transfer ownership to me. In the section of the PEP that discusses prior art, there is a reference to cc'ing folks from npm when analogous issues arise over in JS land. It isn't clear to me from this PEP or its resolution what the proper procedure for pursuing ownership of a claimed, but possibly abandoned namespace is for PyPI. Is there an email address I should cc when contacting the namespace owner? How does one initiate an official request for an abandoned namespace?
Thanks! Emma
Hi Emma, On Sun, May 5, 2019, at 12:49 AM, Emma Tosch wrote:
I have a project that I would like to post on PyPI that clashes with an existing project that I believe may be abandoned
I don't have the answers to your actual questions about who to contact. But have you seen the rather stringent criteria for removing an abandoned project: """ Projects are never removed from the Package Index solely on the basis of abandonment. ... * the candidate is able to demonstrate that the project suggested to reuse the name already exists and meets notability requirements; * the candidate is able to demonstrate why a fork under a different name is not an acceptable workaround; """ This is stricter than the criteria for taking over an abandoned project to improve its code. By design, there's a very high bar to replace a name without the consent of the original author. If there's any possibility of using a different name, that might be easier. Best wishes, Thomas
On Sat, 4 May 2019 at 7:50 PM, Emma Tosch <etosch@fastmail.fm> wrote:
Hi all,
Apologies if this is not the proper channel for the following question.
I have a project that I would like to post on PyPI that clashes with an existing project that I believe may be abandoned ( https://pypi.org/project/toybox/#description). According to this PEP ( https://www.python.org/dev/peps/pep-0541/) it appears that the appropriate course of action is to attempt to contact the owner of this namespace and find out if they will transfer ownership to me. In the section of the PEP that discusses prior art, there is a reference to cc'ing folks from npm when analogous issues arise over in JS land. It isn't clear to me from this PEP or its resolution what the proper procedure for pursuing ownership of a claimed, but possibly abandoned namespace is for PyPI. Is there an email address I should cc when contacting the namespace owner? How does one initiate an official request for an abandoned namespace?
Thanks! Emma
--
Emma Tosch PhD Candidate, College of Information & Computer Sciences University of Massachusetts Amherstetosch@cs.umass.edu http://cs.umass.edu/~etosch
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Hi Emma! Thanks for reaching out. I suggest you file an issue at https://github.com/pypa/warehouse for a PEP 541 request. That'll probably be the best place. Best, Pradyun (on mobile, can't remove quote above, sorry!)
On Sun, May 19, 2019, at 11:08 PM, Pradyun Gedam wrote:
Thanks for reaching out. I suggest you file an issue at https://github.com/pypa/warehouse for a PEP 541 request. That'll probably be the best place.
It looks like Warehouse issues are the de-facto standard place where people make these requests. I've opened a PR to add this detail to PEP 541: https://github.com/python/peps/pull/1059
participants (4)
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Emma Tosch
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Peter Bittner
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Pradyun Gedam
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Thomas Kluyver