Bug: Import error for pkg_resources

[samuelbray32]

Bug Report

Description

• In fresh environment with datajoint installed, I hit an import error for pkg_resources here
• Likely due to removal of pkg_resources in setuptool=82.0.0 release yesterday

Reproducibility

Include:

• Linux
• Python Version 3.13
• DataJoint = 0.14.8
• Minimum number of steps to reliably reproduce the issue:

import datajoint

• Error Stack

---------------------------------------------------------------------------
ModuleNotFoundError                       Traceback (most recent call last)
Cell In[2], line 1
----> 1 import datajoint as dj

File ~/mambaforge-pypy3/envs/dj_test_313/lib/python3.13/site-packages/datajoint/__init__.py:59
     20 __all__ = [
     21     "__author__",
     22     "__version__",
   (...)     55     "cli",
     56 ]
     58 from . import errors
---> 59 from .admin import kill, set_password
     60 from .attribute_adapter import AttributeAdapter
     61 from .blob import MatCell, MatStruct

File ~/mambaforge-pypy3/envs/dj_test_313/lib/python3.13/site-packages/datajoint/admin.py:7
      4 import pymysql
      5 from packaging import version
----> 7 from .connection import conn
      8 from .settings import config
      9 from .utils import user_choice

File ~/mambaforge-pypy3/envs/dj_test_313/lib/python3.13/site-packages/datajoint/connection.py:19
     17 from .dependencies import Dependencies
     18 from .hash import uuid_from_buffer
---> 19 from .plugin import connection_plugins
     20 from .settings import config
     21 from .version import __version__

File ~/mambaforge-pypy3/envs/dj_test_313/lib/python3.13/site-packages/datajoint/plugin.py:4
      1 import logging
      2 from pathlib import Path
----> 4 import pkg_resources
      5 from cryptography.exceptions import InvalidSignature
      6 from otumat import hash_pkg, verify

ModuleNotFoundError: No module named 'pkg_resources'

[dimitri-yatsenko]

Analysis

The pkg_resources module was removed from setuptools 82.0.0 (released Feb 10, 2026). DataJoint 0.14's plugin.py imports it directly for plugin discovery and verification.

Current usage in plugin.py:

import pkg_resources

# Distribution metadata
base_meta = pkg_resources.get_distribution(base_name)
plugin_meta = pkg_resources.get_distribution(plugin_name)

# Package paths for signature verification
plugin_meta.module_path
base_meta.egg_info
plugin_meta.get_metadata(f"{plugin_name}.sig")

# Entry point discovery
pkg_resources.iter_entry_points("datajoint_plugins.{}".format(category))

Solution options

Option	Pros	Cons
Pin setuptools<82	Minimal change, quick fix	Temporary; blocks newer setuptools
Migrate to importlib.metadata	Proper fix, uses stdlib	More code changes; module_path and egg_info equivalents require workarounds

Recommendation

Since 0.14.x is approaching end of life and this was properly addressed in DataJoint 2.x (which uses importlib.metadata), we'll go with the minimal fix: pin setuptools<82 in the runtime dependencies.

This unblocks users immediately while they transition to 2.x.