[Distutils] Outdated packages on pypi

[Glyph Lefkowitz]

> On Jul 12, 2016, at 4:55 AM, Dima Tisnek <dimaqq at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> Hi all,
> 
> Is anyone working on pruning old packages from pypi?
> 
> I found something last updated in 2014, which, looking at the source
> appears half-done.
> Github link doesn't work any longer, no description, etc.
> 
> I managed to find author's email address out of band, and he responded
> that he can't remember the password, yada yada.
> 
> I wonder if some basic automation is possible here -- check if url's
> are reachable and if existing package satisfies basic requirements,
> failing that mark it as "possibly out of date"

My feeling is that there should be a "dead man's switch" sort of mechanism for this.  Require manual intervention from at least one package owner at least once a year.  I believe if you dig around in the archives there's been quite a bit of discussion around messaging to package owners and that sort of thing - and the main sticking point is that someone needs to volunteer to do the work on Warehouse.  Are you that person? :)

-glyph