[Catalog-sig] Renaming packages

["Martin v. Löwis"]

Am 16.06.2010 18:39, schrieb Jacob Kaplan-Moss:
> Howdy folks --
>
> I've received a request from the Debian and Ubuntu maintainers to
> rename one of my packages [1] so that it'd comply better with the
> Debian/Ubuntu naming standards. I'd like to help them out, and ideally
> I'd like to rename my package on PyPI to match the name that APT will
> use. However, as far as I can tell there's no real mechanism for
> renaming packages on PyPI: if I change the name, everyone's
> pip/buildout dependencies will just fail until they, too, update the
> name.
>
> Ideally, I'd expect PyPI to give me a renaming mechanism that'd issue
> the proper redirects from the old name to the new. Apologies if I'm
> just not seeing a feature that's already there; if it's not, though,
> are there any plans for this in the future? Or any other bright ideas?

There is a renaming mechanism, but it does just that: rename the 
package, and all releases. Also, it's available only to the admin, so 
you have to request it through the bug tracker.

It turns out that this actually causes problems (beyond the 
dependencies): the files are *not* renamed, and that is, at least, 
confusing (because they stop matching the project name). Renaming
the files is no option, either, because they then stop matching
the embedded setup.py.

I think your proposed mechanism wouldn't work too well, either: if you 
issue redirects, then setuptools will follow the redirects, too. 
Depending on the package name you originally requested, it will then 
fail to see either the old files or the new files, since they don't 
match the project name.

So I think the best you can hope for is this:
- you have the old releases, and they are easy_installable only
   with the old name.
- you have the new releases, and they are easy_installable only with
   the new name.

If that's all you can get, I suggest just to create the new package, and 
release under the new package name. For human users of the package 
index, create a single release of the old package, with a description 
that has a link to the new name.

Regards,
Martin