Python Enhancement Proposals

PEP 569 – Python 3.8 Release Schedule

PEP
569
Title
Python 3.8 Release Schedule
Author
Łukasz Langa <lukasz at python.org>
Status
Active
Type
Informational
Created
27-Jan-2018
Python-Version
3.8

Contents

Abstract

This document describes the development and release schedule for Python 3.8. The schedule primarily concerns itself with PEP-sized items.

Release Manager and Crew

  • 3.8 Release Manager: Łukasz Langa
  • Windows installers: Steve Dower
  • Mac installers: Ned Deily
  • Documentation: Julien Palard

3.8 Lifespan

3.8 will receive bugfix updates approximately every 2 months for approximately 18 months. Some time after the release of 3.9.0 final, the ninth and final 3.8 bugfix update will be released. After that, it is expected that security updates (source only) will be released until 5 years after the release of 3.8 final, so until approximately October 2024.

Release Schedule

3.8.0 schedule

  • 3.8 development begins: Monday, 2018-01-29
  • 3.8.0 alpha 1: Sunday, 2019-02-03
  • 3.8.0 alpha 2: Monday, 2019-02-25
  • 3.8.0 alpha 3: Monday, 2019-03-25
  • 3.8.0 alpha 4: Monday, 2019-05-06
  • 3.8.0 beta 1: Tuesday, 2019-06-04 (No new features beyond this point.)
  • 3.8.0 beta 2: Monday, 2019-07-04
  • 3.8.0 beta 3: Monday, 2019-07-29
  • 3.8.0 beta 4: Friday, 2019-08-30
  • 3.8.0 candidate 1: Tuesday, 2019-10-01
  • 3.8.0 final: Monday, 2019-10-14

Bugfix releases

  • 3.8.1rc1: Tuesday, 2019-12-10
  • 3.8.1: Wednesday, 2019-12-18
  • 3.8.2rc1: Monday, 2020-02-10
  • 3.8.2rc2: Monday, 2020-02-17
  • 3.8.2: Monday, 2020-02-24
  • 3.8.3rc1: Wednesday, 2020-04-29
  • 3.8.3: Wednesday, 2020-05-13
  • 3.8.4rc1: Tuesday, 2020-06-30
  • 3.8.4: Monday, 2020-07-13
  • 3.8.5: Monday, 2020-07-20 (security hotfix)
  • 3.8.6rc1: Tuesday, 2020-09-08
  • 3.8.6: Thursday, 2020-09-24
  • 3.8.7rc1: Monday, 2020-12-07
  • 3.8.7: Monday, 2020-12-21
  • 3.8.8rc1: Tuesday, 2021-02-16
  • 3.8.8: Friday, 2021-02-19
  • 3.8.9: Friday, 2021-04-02 (security hotfix)
  • 3.8.10: Monday, 2021-05-03 (final regular bugfix release with binary installers)

Source-only security fix releases

Provided irregularly on an “as-needed” basis until October 2024.

  • 3.8.11: Monday, 2021-06-28
  • 3.8.12: Monday, 2021-08-30

Features for 3.8

Some of the notable features of Python 3.8 include:

  • PEP 570, Positional-only arguments
  • PEP 572, Assignment Expressions
  • PEP 574, Pickle protocol 5 with out-of-band data
  • PEP 578, Runtime audit hooks
  • PEP 587, Python Initialization Configuration
  • PEP 590, Vectorcall: a fast calling protocol for CPython
  • Typing-related: PEP 591 (Final qualifier), PEP 586 (Literal types), and PEP 589 (TypedDict)
  • Parallel filesystem cache for compiled bytecode
  • Debug builds share ABI as release builds
  • f-strings support a handy = specifier for debugging
  • continue is now legal in finally: blocks
  • on Windows, the default asyncio event loop is now ProactorEventLoop
  • on macOS, the spawn start method is now used by default in multiprocessing
  • multiprocessing can now use shared memory segments to avoid pickling costs between processes
  • typed_ast is merged back to CPython
  • LOAD_GLOBAL is now 40% faster
  • pickle now uses Protocol 4 by default, improving performance

There are many other interesting changes, please consult the “What’s New” page in the documentation for a full list.

Source: https://github.com/python/peps/blob/master/pep-0569.rst

Last modified: 2021-09-17 00:57:14 GMT