packaging-legacy

What it is and what it does

packaging-legacy is a compatibility shim that restores APIs removed from the main packaging library. It provides `LegacyVersion` and a `parse` function for handling version strings in older formats that the current packaging library no longer supports. The package depends only on packaging itself and is marked production-stable across Python 3.7–3.11.

You would use this only if your codebase or dependencies still reference `LegacyVersion` or need to parse legacy version strings. It is not a replacement for packaging—it is a narrow bridge for code that was written against older packaging APIs and cannot be easily updated.

Use it for:

• Parsing version strings from legacy Python packages that predate modern standardization.
• Maintaining code that imports `LegacyVersion` directly without refactoring to current version handling.
• Supporting old package metadata or version formats in a tool or library that cannot migrate immediately.
• Bridging a dependency tree where some transitive packages still expect the old packaging API.

Worth the install?

AI-flagged interpretation of the facts on this page — verify before relying

Provides access to deprecated Python packaging APIs—specifically `LegacyVersion` and a version parser—that were removed from the main packaging library.

Yes, but only if you have a specific need: code that imports `LegacyVersion` or relies on legacy version parsing. The package is stable and permissively licensed, but dormant—no active maintenance since mid-2024. Do not install it as a general dependency; install it only to unblock a concrete compatibility issue with legacy version formats.

Install

packaging-legacy on PyPI

pip install packaging-legacy

uv add packaging-legacy

poetry add packaging-legacy

Installing packaging-legacy

Before you install

Low install friction with a single dependency on packaging. Maintenance is dormant—last release was 2023-11-28 and no commits since 2024-08-19—so expect no active support or updates.

License in practice

Licensed under permissive terms (Apache and BSD), so no restrictions on commercial or proprietary use.

Quickstart

pip install packaging-legacy

from packaging_legacy.version import parse, LegacyVersion

v = parse('1.0-final')
print(isinstance(v, LegacyVersion))

Verify before relying

• Whether legacy version formats this package handles are still encountered in modern Python ecosystems or are purely historical.
• Compatibility guarantees with future versions of the packaging library that this package depends on.
• Whether the non-standard version formats supported by LegacyVersion follow any documented specification.

Package facts

Evidence: packaging_legacy-23.0.post0-py3-none-any.whl

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