PEP 569 – Python 3.8 Release Schedule | peps.python.org (original) (raw)
Author:
Łukasz Langa
Status:
Final
Type:
Informational
Topic:
Created:
27-Jan-2018
Python-Version:
3.8
Table of 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 was released. After that, security updates (source only) were released for 5 years until the release of Python 3.13.0 final.
As of 2024-10-07, 3.8 has reached theend-of-life phaseof its release cycle. 3.8.20 was the final security release. The codebase for 3.8 is now frozen and no further updates will be provided nor issues of any kind will be accepted on the bug tracker.
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: Thursday, 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 7th 2024.
- 3.8.11: Monday, 2021-06-28
- 3.8.12: Monday, 2021-08-30
- 3.8.13: Wednesday, 2022-03-16
- 3.8.14: Tuesday, 2022-09-06
- 3.8.15: Tuesday, 2022-10-11
- 3.8.16: Tuesday, 2022-12-06
- 3.8.17: Tuesday, 2023-06-06
- 3.8.18: Thursday, 2023-08-24
- 3.8.19: Tuesday, 2024-03-19
- 3.8.20: Friday, 2024-09-06 (final security release)
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 continueis now legal infinally:blocks- on Windows, the default
asyncioevent loop is nowProactorEventLoop - on macOS, the spawn start method is now used by default in
multiprocessing multiprocessingcan now use shared memory segments to avoid pickling costs between processestyped_astis merged back to CPythonLOAD_GLOBALis now 40% fasterpicklenow 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.
Copyright
This document has been placed in the public domain.