Sam Hooke

python-systemd != python-systemd

tl;dr: To install the official systemd Python package, use pip install systemd-python, even though python-systemd is the name of the repository on GitHub.

systemd-python ✔️ §

The systemd-python package on PyPI comes from the systemd/python-systemd repository on GitHub. To install this package:

pip install systemd-python  # Correct.
pip install python-systemd  # Wrong!! This will install the archived package described below.

This package is the official Python wrapper for systemd provided by freedesktop.org, and is currently maintained

python-systemd ⚠️ §

The python-systemd package on PyPI, as far as I can tell1, comes from the wiliamsouza/python-systemd package on GitHub.

Chances are you do not want to install this package. The last release was over 7 years ago on 2015-01-31, and the project was archived as read-only on GitHub over 2 years ago on 2021-04-05.

To be clear, this package does not appear harmful, just outdated and unmaintained.

  1. It’s not linked from PyPI, but searching on GitHub traces back to this repository, and the name of the author on GitHub matches the name of the author on PyPI. ↩︎