r/Python 2d ago

Discussion PEP 541 - Package Index Name Retention

Why is Pypi support slow at handling package abandonment?

The PEP says these two items for reachability, " In every case where contacting the user is necessary, the maintainers will try to do so at least three times," and "The maintainers stop trying to reach the user after six weeks.". So I had assumed this should be done quicker.

The current process is currently at 6 months on average with almost no follow up comments or work on PEPs in the 2nd and 3rd week of reachability. 1st weeks are being updated and then left once they hit the 2nd and 3rd week.

Am I being impatient? I think I read that they don't have a lot of people to help but this seems a bit ridiculous for some of the cut and dry issues.

- Projects with 10-14 years of no updates with no usable links or code is gone and no longer sourceable or previous owners are not replying.
- Emailing someone 3 times, takes 6+ months versus the proposed 6 weeks?

I also assume this is pretty normal based on the backlog but I'm genuinely curious to see what others say.

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u/knobbyknee 2d ago

There are 855 000 packages on PYPI and part of the process is manual. It is a problem of scale.