Added a try/except for importing pam with logging an error and updated README to note that when using pam you need to install pam module

README.rst

@@ -111,7 +111,8 @@ Currently only password-protected uploads are supported!
      bottle.run(app=app, host=config.host, port=config.port, server=config.server)
 
     .. Note::
-     If you are getting authentication even with incorrect credentials please check your PAM configuration.
+     - If you are getting authentication even with incorrect credentials please check your PAM configuration.
+     - This requires installing pam module `pip install pam`
 
 #. On client-side, edit or create a `~/.pypirc` file with a similar content::
 

pypiserver/core.py

@@ -92,8 +92,12 @@ def auth_by_htpasswd_file(htPsswdFile, username, password):
 
 
 def auth_by_pam(username, password):
+    try:
         import pam
         return pam.authenticate(username, password)
+    except ImportError as error:
+        log.error('PAM module not found. Please install pam module')
+        return False
 
 
 mimetypes.add_type("application/octet-stream", ".egg")