Sometimes there is a perfectly good package you want to use on PyPI... but it has some minor issue that makes it not work in a recent Python version, or an incompatibility with some other library. It's easy to fix, but the original author isn't around any more or is too busy to update the package.

That's where the compat-fork organization comes in. This organization provides a home to keep these abandoned packages alive—or at least alive enough that they will keep working.

We accept Python packages that already exist, but need some (hopefully small) updates to keep them working in the current Python ecosystem. We don't do feature development on these packages, just compatibility fixes and other tweaks to keep the code working as the Python ecosystem evolves.

This organization isn't a place to develop new features. If you want to breathe new life into one of the libraries and extend it with new features, please create your own fork providing these features.

• Python packages (not necessarily written in Python; we'll take extension modules)
• Not being maintained
• Has some issue that prevents you from using the package in the way you'd like to use it

• Fixes for compatibility with newer Python versions
• Fixes for compatibility with newer packaging standards
• Fixes for compatibility with other libraries (e.g., removing version bounds)
• Improvements to the CI setup (e.g., migrating to Trusted Publishing and GitHub Actions)
• Changes to make it easier to release new versions
• Possibly other critical bug fixes (e.g., plugging security holes)
• Documentation changes pointing to alternative libraries that are still being maintained and provide similar functionality

• New features
• Large rewrites
• New documentation

• Open an issue on this repo, with the name of the package and evidence it needs to be forked. Ideally, this should be a link to an issue on the original package's repository.
• We'll create the repo.
• Send PRs with fixes.
• We'll make a release to PyPI.

This project was started by me (@JelleZijlstra) to solve some problems I ran into personally. But a project that serves as insurance against abandoned packages really needs more than one maintainer, so if you're interested in joining, please let me know.