Module name change prevents execution of update scripts.

[tobbexiv]

In case of a name change of a module, the update will work like an install instead of an update. The update functions are not executed and thus possible changes to the database are lost. This is due to a check whether a module with this name already exists (which is not the case if the module name is changed). Thus, a module name change might prevent the execution of important updates for an extension.

See my analysis in the forum for more information.

A valid scenario for a module name change would be the introduction of a namespace.

[malte-christian]

I think changing a modules name is a non standard case and should be handled by a custom script in the installation hook. Do you see any downsides by solving this inside the installation hook?

[ahoiroman]

Hm - when I look at the marketplace, there are a lot of extensions that do not have a "namespaced" extension name. In some cases that's not critical, but some names could easily conflict with other extensions that don't have an unique name, too ("Gallery", "Blog", ...).

So I think it's important to convince the devs to switch over to an unique name (=> "namespaced").

Considering this, I think it would be "expected behavior" to change the name during the update-process. Just my opinion ;)