Pip and the Python Package Authority with Donald Stufft

Visit our site to listen to past episodes, support the show, join our community, and sign up for our mailing list. Summary As Python developers we have all used pip to install the different libraries and projects that we need for our work, but have you ever wondered about who works on pip and how the package archive we all know and love is maintained? In this episode we interviewed Donald Stufft who is the primary maintainer of pip and the Python Package Index about how he got involved with the projects, what kind of work is involved, and what is on the roadmap. Give it a listen and then give him a big thank you for all of his hard work! Brief Introduction Hello and welcome to Podcast.__init__, the podcast about Python and the people who make it great. Subscribe on iTunes, Stitcher, TuneIn or RSS Google Play Music just launched support for podcasts, so now you can check us out there and subscribe to the show. Follow us on Twitter or Google+ Give us feedback! Leave a review on iTunes, Tweet to us, send us an email or leave us a message on Google+ Join our community! Visit discourse.pythonpodcast.com for your opportunity to find out about upcoming guests, suggest questions, and propose show ideas. I would like to thank everyone who has donated to the show. Your contributions help us make the show sustainable. For details on how to support the show you can visit our site at pythonpodcast.com Linode is sponsoring us this week. Check them out at linode.com/podcastinit and get a $20 credit to try out their fast and reliable Linux virtual servers for your next project We also have a new sponsor this week. Rollbar is a service for tracking and aggregating your application errors so that you can fix the bugs in your application before your users notice they exist. Use the link rollbar.com/podcatinit to get 90 days and 300,000 errors for free on their bootstrap plan. The Open Data Science Conference in Boston is happening on May 21st and 22nd. If you use the code EP during registration you will save 20% off of the ticket price. If you decide to attend then let us know, we’ll see you there! Your hosts as usual are Tobias Macey and Chris Patti Today we are interviewing Donald Stufft about Pip and the Python Packaging Authority Interview with Donald Stufft Introductions How did you get introduced to Python? – Chris How did you get involved with the Pip project? – Tobias What is the Python Packaging Authority and what does it do? – Tobias How is PyPi / the Python Packaging Authority funded? – Chris What is your opinion on the current state of Python packaging? Are there lessons from other languages and package managers that you think should be adopted by Python? – Tobias What was involved in getting pip into the standard Python distribution? Was there any controversy around this? – Chris Can you describe some of the mechanics of Pip and how it differs from the other packaging systems that Python has used in the past? – Tobias Does pip interact at all with virtualenv, pyenv and the like? – Chris The newest package format for Python is the wheel system. Can you describe what that is and what its benefits are? – Tobias What are the biggest challenges that you have encountered while working on Pip? – Tobias What does the infrastructure for the Python Package Index look like? – Tobias What have been some of the challenges around scaling Pypi’s infrastructure to meet demand? – Chris You’re currently working on a replacement for the PyPI site with the Warehouse project. Can you explain your motivation for that and how it improves on the current system? – Tobias Where do you see the future of dependency management in Python headed? – Chris A few days ago there was a big story about how an NPM library was removed from the index, breaking a large number of dependent projects and applications. Do you think that anything like that could happen in the Python ecosystem? – Tobias What’s on the roadmap for Pip? – Tobias Keep In Touch GitHub DistUtils Special Interest Group Email @dstufft on Twitter Picks Tobias Xiki Chris Agar.io Culprate TCP/IP Illustrated Volume I: The Protocols Donald Linux on Windows 10 Links Bandersnatch Wheel Warehouse pypa/warehouse PyPI Sponsors56 DevPI The intro and outro music is from Requiem for a Fish The Freak Fandango Orchestra / CC BY-SA