Tuesday, February 25, 2020

Python 3.8.2 and 3.9.0a4 are now available

On behalf of the entire Python development community, and the currently serving Python release team in particular, I’m pleased to announce the release of two of the latest Python editions.

Python 3.8.2

Python 3.8.2 is the second maintenance release of Python 3.8 and contains two months worth of bug fixes. Detailed information about all changes made in 3.8.2 can be found in its change log. Note that compared to 3.8.1, version 3.8.2 also contains the changes introduced in 3.8.2rc1 and 3.8.2rc2.

The Python 3.8 series is the newest feature release of the Python language, and it contains many new features and optimizations. You can find Python 3.8.2 here:
https://www.python.org/downloads/release/python-382/

See the What’s New in Python 3.8document for more information about features included in the 3.8 series.

Maintenance releases for the 3.8 series will continue at regular bi-monthly intervals, with 3.8.3 planned for April 2020 (at the PyCon US sprints).

Python 3.9.0a4

An early developer preview of Python 3.9 is also ready:
https://www.python.org/downloads/release/python-390a4/

Python 3.9 is still in development. This releasee, 3.9.0a4 is the fourth of six planned alpha releases. Alpha releases are intended to make it easier to test the current state of new features and bug fixes and to test the release process. During the alpha phase, features may be added up until the start of the beta phase (2020-05-18) and, if necessary, may be modified or deleted up until the release candidate phase (2020-08-10). Please keep in mind that this is a preview release and its use is not recommended for production environments.

We hope you enjoy both!

Thanks to all of the many volunteers who help make Python Development and these releases possible! Please consider supporting our efforts by volunteering yourself or through organization contributions to the Python Software Foundation.
https://www.python.org/psf/

Your friendly release team,

Ned Deily
Steve Dower
Łukasz Langa

Tuesday, February 18, 2020

Python 3.8.2rc2 is now available for testing

Python 3.8.2rc2 is the second release candidate of the second maintenance release of Python 3.8. Go get it here:

https://www.python.org/downloads/release/python-382rc2/

Why a second release candidate?

The major reason for RC2 is that GH-16839 has been reverted.

The original change was supposed to fix for some edge cases in urlparse (numeric paths, recognizing netlocs without //; details in BPO-27657). Unfortunately it broke third parties relying on the pre-existing undefined behavior.

Sadly, the reverted fix has already been released as part of 3.8.1 (and 3.7.6 where it’s also reverted now). As such, even though the revert is itself a bug fix, it is incompatible with the behavior of 3.8.1.

Please test.

Timeline

Assuming no critical problems are found prior to 2020-02-24, the currently scheduled release date for  3.8.2 (as well as 3.9.0 alpha 4!), no code changes are planned between this release candidate and the final release.

That being said, please keep in mind that this is a pre-release of 3.8.2 and as such its main purpose is testing.

Maintenance releases for the 3.8 series will continue at regular bi-monthly intervals, with 3.8.3 planned for April 2020 (during sprints at PyCon US).

What’s new?

The Python 3.8 series is the newest feature release of the Python language, and it contains many new features and optimizations. See the “What’s New in Python 3.8” document for more information about features included in the 3.8 series.

Detailed information about all changes made in version 3.8.2 specifically can be found in its change log.

We hope you enjoy Python 3.8!

Thanks to all of the many volunteers who help make Python Development and these releases possible! Please consider supporting our efforts by volunteering yourself or through organization contributions to the Python Software Foundation.