Pyhdf links in PyPI going to a server that is offline? (with workaround)

I am trying to use pip to add a package pyhdf

to python3. I am working in virtualenv and have prereq packages:

% pip list

numpy (1.9.2)
pip (7.0.3)
requests (2.7.0)
setuptools (17.0)
wheel (0.24.0)

      

        
        
        
      

    

If I ask pip to get the most recent default pyhdf version, I believe it is looking for this index page

https://pypi.python.org/simple/pyhdf/

      

        
        
        
      

    

It looks like it is trying to disable pip as it is trying to FTP egg for v.0.7.x (not the last one) from a server that is not currently responding:

ftp://nordet.qc.dfo-mpo.gc.ca/pub/soft/pyhdf/pyhdf-0.7-1.tar.gz

I went through all the confusion that the "requests" package does not support FTP URLs like this, and that protocol now severely prevents external / unverified packages from being received, even though they are listed in PyPI. I ended up with this workaround by getting the latest build directly from the authors site:

wget http://hdfeos.org/software/pyhdf/pyhdf-0.9.0.tar.gz

To create a python package from a downloaded egg, you need to get the original headers for libhdf before running setup.py (via pip or manually.) The next thing I did outside of venv, although they might work inside one too

sudo apt-get install libhdf4-0
sudo apt-get install libhdf4-dev libhdf4-doc

      

        
        
        
      

    

Finally, back in venv, the actual install syntax that worked for me to install pyhdf from the tar.gz I downloaded is:

pip install --global-option=build_ext --global-option="-I/usr/include/hdf" --no-index --find-links=file:pyhdf-0.9.0.tar.gz pyhdf

      

        
        
        
      

    

after which pip list

it gives:

numpy (1.9.2)
pip (7.0.3)
pyhdf (0.9.0)
requests (2.7.0)
setuptools (17.0)
wheel (0.24.0)

      

        
        
        
      

    

Yay!

Since I am posting my workaround, which made me be okay to make this question relevant, I will ask: Is there an official way that users can contact PyPI admins or the authors of the pyhdf package to report that link " best match "on the project page:

• no later version and
• points to an FTP server that appears to be offline (at least for the time being) making it pip install pyhdf
  
  in principle impracticable without much manual intervention (which, if permanent, should be documented by maintainers)