No way to determine which versions have been used by previous owners of a project name

[patrick-kidger]

What's the problem this feature will solve?

I'm the owner of the 'quax' project on PyPI. I'm finding that I've been able to upload bdists at versions 0.1.0 and 0.1.1, but cannot upload sdists for either:

Uploading quax-0.1.1-py3-none-any.whl
  0% ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 0.0/59.1 kB • --:-- • ?
  0% ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 0.0/59.1 kB • --:-- • ?
100% ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 59.1/59.1 kB • 00:00 • 122.8 MB/s
100% ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 59.1/59.1 kB • 00:00 • 122.8 MB/s
100% ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 59.1/59.1 kB • 00:00 • 122.8 MB/s
100% ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 59.1/59.1 kB • 00:00 • 122.8 MB/s
100% ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 59.1/59.1 kB • 00:00 • 122.8 MB/s
100% ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 59.1/59.1 kB • 00:00 • 122.8 MB/s
100% ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 59.1/59.1 kB • 00:00 • 122.8 MB/s
100% ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 59.1/59.1 kB • 00:00 • 122.8 MB/s
100% ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 59.1/59.1 kB • 00:00 • 122.8 MB/s
100% ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 59.1/59.1 kB • 00:00 • 122.8 MB/s
100% ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 59.1/59.1 kB • 00:00 • 122.8 MB/s
Uploading quax-0.1.1.tar.gz
  0% ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 0.0/48.2 kB • --:-- • ?
100% ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 48.2/48.2 kB • 00:00 • 112.1 MB/s
100% ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 48.2/48.2 kB • 00:00 • 112.1 MB/s
100% ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 48.2/48.2 kB • 00:00 • 112.1 MB/s
100% ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 48.2/48.2 kB • 00:00 • 112.1 MB/s
25hWARNING  Error during upload. Retry with the --verbose option for more details.
ERROR    HTTPError: 400 Bad Request from https://upload.pypi.org/legacy/
         This filename has already been used, use a different version. See
         https://pypi.org/help/#file-name-reuse for more information.

Searching around I found https://github.com/pypi/warehouse/issues/6700, which suggests that there was probably previously a now-deleted project under the same name, which is preventing me from releasing at these versions.

I cannot find any way to interrogate what versions may previously have been released by the presumed previous owner of this name.

Describe the solution you'd like

Ideally there should be a way to surface this information beyond trying to register a new version and failing to do so.

Alternatively if there is such a way and I have simply failed to find it, then can this information be added to the help page that is linked in the error message?

Additional context

I'd really appreciate any one-off help on this occasion telling me which versions are already registered. On that basis I can try to find a versioning scheme that is compatible with those available.

[di]

Hi @patrick-kidger, thanks for filing the issue. We were just discussing this this in a team meeting last week, but you beat us to it. 🙂

Short term, until this is resolved, we are happy to provide the list of previously used filenames to any project owner if they email [email protected]. I've emailed you this list for quax.

Long term, we are planning to include the previously used filenames in the management UI somewhere. I'm curious, is there a particular place you would have expected them to be listed, or that you looked for them first?

[patrick-kidger]

Hi @patrick-kidger, thanks for filing the issue. We were just discussing this this in a team meeting last week, but you beat us to it. 🙂

Haha!

Short term, until this is resolved, we are happy to provide the list of previously used filenames to any project owner if they email [email protected]. I've emailed you this list for quax.

Thank you very much for the help, I really appreciate it.

Long term, we are planning to include the previously used filenames in the management UI somewhere. I'm curious, is there a particular place you would have expected them to be listed, or that you looked for them first?

Sure:

• Ideally, the error message itself (could include a link to some kind of https://pypi.org/projects/quax/past-names-by-previous-owners).
• The linked page at https://pypi.org/help/#file-name-reuse.
• The place where all the other released files are stated: https://pypi.org/project/quax/#history and https://pypi.org/project/quax/#files
• In https://pypi.org/manage/project/quax/history/, which I didn't actually know existed until now. FWIW I almost never need to go to the 'manage' pages for my projects though, so this is a little out-of-the-way.