pep-0243.txt

PEP: 243
Title: Module Repository Upload Mechanism
Version: $Revision$
Last-Modified: $Date$
Author: jafo-pep@tummy.com (Sean Reifschneider)
Discussions-To: distutils-sig@python.org
Status: Withdrawn
Type: Standards Track
Content-Type: text/x-rst
Created: 18-Mar-2001
Python-Version: 2.1
Post-History: 20-Mar-2001, 24-Mar-2001


Abstract
========

For a module repository system (such as Perl's CPAN) to be
successful, it must be as easy as possible for module authors to
submit their work.  An obvious place for this submit to happen is
in the Distutils tools after the distribution archive has been
successfully created.  For example, after a module author has
tested their software (verifying the results of ``setup.py sdist``),
they might type ``setup.py sdist --submit``.  This would flag
Distutils to submit the source distribution to the archive server
for inclusion and distribution to the mirrors.

This PEP only deals with the mechanism for submitting the software
distributions to the archive, and does not deal with the actual
archive/catalog server.


Upload Process
==============

The upload will include the Distutils ``PKG-INFO`` meta-data
information (as specified in PEP 241 [1]_), the actual software
distribution, and other optional information.  This information
will be uploaded as a multi-part form encoded the same as a
regular HTML file upload request.  This form is posted using
``ENCTYPE="multipart/form-data"`` encoding [2]_.

The upload will be made to the host "www.python.org" on port
80/tcp (``POST http://www.python.org:80/pypi``).  The form
will consist of the following fields:

- ``distribution`` -- The file containing the module software (for
  example, a ``.tar.gz`` or ``.zip`` file).

- ``distmd5sum`` -- The MD5 hash of the uploaded distribution,
  encoded in ASCII representing the hexadecimal representation
  of the digest (``for byte in digest: s = s + ('%02x' %
  ord(byte))``).

- ``pkginfo`` (optional) -- The file containing the distribution
  meta-data (as specified in PEP 241 [1]_).  Note that if this is
  not included, the distribution file is expected to be in ``.tar``
  format (gzipped and bzipped compressed are allowed) or ``.zip``
  format, with a ``PKG-INFO`` file in the top-level directory it
  extracts (``package-1.00/PKG-INFO``).

- ``infomd5sum`` (required if pkginfo field is present) -- The MD5 hash
  of the uploaded meta-data, encoded in ASCII representing the
  hexadecimal representation of the digest (``for byte in digest:
  s = s + ('%02x' % ord(byte))``).

- ``platform`` (optional) -- A string representing the target
  platform for this distribution.  This is only for binary
  distributions.  It is encoded as
  ``<os_name>-<os_version>-<platform architecture>-<python
  version>``.

- ``signature`` (optional) -- A OpenPGP-compatible signature [3]_ of
  the uploaded distribution as signed by the author.  This may
  be used by the cataloging system to automate acceptance of
  uploads.

- ``protocol_version`` -- A string indicating the protocol version that
  the client supports.  This document describes protocol version "1".


Return Data
===========

The status of the upload will be reported using HTTP non-standard
(``X-*``) headers.  The ``X-Swalow-Status`` header may have the following
values:

- ``SUCCESS`` -- Indicates that the upload has succeeded.

- ``FAILURE`` -- The upload is, for some reason, unable to be
  processed.

- ``TRYAGAIN`` -- The server is unable to accept the upload at this
  time, but the client should try again at a later time.
  Potential causes of this are resource shortages on the server,
  administrative down-time, etc...

Optionally, there may be a ``X-Swalow-Reason`` header which includes a
human-readable string which provides more detailed information about
the ``X-Swalow-Status``.

If there is no ``X-Swalow-Status`` header, or it does not contain one of
the three strings above, it should be treated as a temporary failure.

Example::

    >>> f = urllib.urlopen('http://www.python.org:80/pypi')
    >>> s = f.headers['x-swalow-status']
    >>> s = s + ': ' + f.headers.get('x-swalow-reason', '<None>')
    >>> print s
    FAILURE: Required field "distribution" missing.


Sample Form
===========

The upload client must submit the page in the same form as
Netscape Navigator version 4.76 for Linux produces when presented
with the following form::

    <H1>Upload file</H1>
    <FORM NAME="fileupload" METHOD="POST" ACTION="pypi"
        ENCTYPE="multipart/form-data">
    <INPUT TYPE="file" NAME="distribution"><BR>
    <INPUT TYPE="text" NAME="distmd5sum"><BR>
    <INPUT TYPE="file" NAME="pkginfo"><BR>
    <INPUT TYPE="text" NAME="infomd5sum"><BR>
    <INPUT TYPE="text" NAME="platform"><BR>
    <INPUT TYPE="text" NAME="signature"><BR>
    <INPUT TYPE="hidden" NAME="protocol_version" VALUE="1"><BR>
    <INPUT TYPE="SUBMIT" VALUE="Upload">
    </FORM>


Platforms
=========

The following are valid os names::

    aix beos debian dos freebsd hpux mac macos mandrake netbsd
    openbsd qnx redhat solaris suse windows yellowdog

The above include a number of different types of distributions of
Linux.  Because of versioning issues these must be split out, and
it is expected that when it makes sense for one system to use
distributions made on other similar systems, the download client
will make the distinction.

Version is the official version string specified by the vendor for
the particular release.  For example, "2000" and "nt" (Windows),
"9.04" (HP-UX), "7.0" (RedHat, Mandrake).

The following are valid architectures::

    alpha hppa ix86 powerpc sparc ultrasparc


Status
======

I currently have a proof-of-concept client and server implemented.
I plan to have the Distutils patches ready for the 2.1 release.
Combined with Andrew's PEP 241 [1]_ for specifying distribution
meta-data, I hope to have a platform which will allow us to gather
real-world data for finalizing the catalog system for the 2.2
release.


References
==========

.. [1] Metadata for Python Software Package, Kuchling,
       http://www.python.org/dev/peps/pep-0241/

.. [2] RFC 1867, Form-based File Upload in HTML
       http://www.faqs.org/rfcs/rfc1867.html

.. [3] RFC 2440, OpenPGP Message Format
       http://www.faqs.org/rfcs/rfc2440.html


Copyright
=========

This document has been placed in the public domain.



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