[Python-Dev] Re: [Pydotorg] Documenting branch policy (original) (raw)

Guido van Rossum guido at python.org
Sun Sep 7 16:23:38 EDT 2003

> Maintenance branches are for bug fixes > only;

This question is heavily debated. Alex Martelli, for example, favours a policy where new (in a strict sense) features are acceptable if they don't break anything, and are "minor", in some sense.

Which pretty much matches the policy I used informally before all this was written down in PEPs. (Admittedly, 1.5.2 went way beyond this, and I don't wish to go back to those days.)

> maintaining backwards compatibility at every level is imperative. > (In particular, all extension modules and bytecode for Python > 2.x.y must continue to work with Python > 2.x.y+1 -- binary compatibility in the C API and > bytecode must be maintained.)

Even that requirement got dropped at one time, on grounds of the specific API being irrelevant for all practical applications.

So the rule becomes all extension modules and bytecode "in actual use" must continue to work. BTW I don't think we've ever changed the bytecode in a micro release after 1.5.2, and I want to continue to be strict about that.

>

Any Python developer may checkin bug fixes on a maintenance branch;

> it is the release manager's responsibility to create the maintenance > branch after releasing a new major Python version.

The typical guidelines apply: If in doubt, post to SF.

Or discuss it here. (I personally don't see new bugs on SF, but I do read all of python-dev -- though this should come as no surprise, as according to Brett's stats, I also write most of it. :-)

--Guido van Rossum (home page: http://www.python.org/~guido/)

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