Analyzing the Availability of E-Mail Addresses for PyPI Libraries
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arXiv
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| Format: | Preprint |
| Published: |
2026
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| _version_ | 1866917451798675456 |
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| author | Tsakpinis, Alexandros Pretschner, Alexander |
| author_facet | Tsakpinis, Alexandros Pretschner, Alexander |
| contents | Background: Open Source Software (OSS) libraries form the backbone of modern software systems, yet their long-term sustainability often depends on maintainers being reachable for support, coordination, and security reporting. Aims: In this paper, we empirically analyze the availability of contact information, specifically e-mail addresses, across 754,413 Python libraries on the Python Package Index (PyPI) and their associated GitHub repositories. Method: We examine where maintainers provide this information, assess its validity, and explore coverage across individual libraries and their dependency chains. Results: Our findings show that 79.1% of libraries include at least one valid e-mail address, with PyPI serving as the primary source (76.5%). When analyzing dependency chains, we observe that up to 97.7% of direct and 97.5% of transitive dependencies provide valid contact information. At the same time, we identify over 793,000 invalid entries, primarily due to missing fields. Conclusions: Our results indicate strong maintainer reachability, while highlighting opportunities for improvement, such as offering clearer guidance to maintainers during the packaging process and introducing opt-in validation mechanisms for existing e-mail addresses. |
| format | Preprint |
| id |
arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2601_14034 |
| institution | arXiv |
| publishDate | 2026 |
| record_format | arxiv |
| spellingShingle | Analyzing the Availability of E-Mail Addresses for PyPI Libraries Tsakpinis, Alexandros Pretschner, Alexander Software Engineering Background: Open Source Software (OSS) libraries form the backbone of modern software systems, yet their long-term sustainability often depends on maintainers being reachable for support, coordination, and security reporting. Aims: In this paper, we empirically analyze the availability of contact information, specifically e-mail addresses, across 754,413 Python libraries on the Python Package Index (PyPI) and their associated GitHub repositories. Method: We examine where maintainers provide this information, assess its validity, and explore coverage across individual libraries and their dependency chains. Results: Our findings show that 79.1% of libraries include at least one valid e-mail address, with PyPI serving as the primary source (76.5%). When analyzing dependency chains, we observe that up to 97.7% of direct and 97.5% of transitive dependencies provide valid contact information. At the same time, we identify over 793,000 invalid entries, primarily due to missing fields. Conclusions: Our results indicate strong maintainer reachability, while highlighting opportunities for improvement, such as offering clearer guidance to maintainers during the packaging process and introducing opt-in validation mechanisms for existing e-mail addresses. |
| title | Analyzing the Availability of E-Mail Addresses for PyPI Libraries |
| topic | Software Engineering |
| url | https://arxiv.org/abs/2601.14034 |