Features/Python 3.2

= Python 3.2 =

Summary
Update the Python 3 stack in Fedora from 3.1 to 3.2

Owner

 * Name: Dave Malcolm


 * Email: 

Current status

 * Targeted release: Fedora 15
 * Last updated: 2011-04-07
 * Percentage of completion: 100%

Upstream has now released 3.2 (see the upstream release schedule)

Latest in F15 is 3.2 (via an errata)

Latest in F16 is 3.2

The final change to the bytecode format for 3.2 was in upstream revision 84686, which changed the magic number of .pyc/.pyo files to 3180. The latest version of rpmlint for F15 (and rawhide) correctly checks for this bytecode version in python 3 rpms (see )

The "file" command has been taught about 3.2's .pyc/.pyo files: (though so far only fixed in F16 onwards)

Detailed Description
Python 3.2 is the latest release of the Python 3 language. Although the core language has been frozen (to allow the non-CPython implementation of Python to "catch up" with CPython), 3.2 contains hundreds of fixes and tweaks throughout, a few of which I'm responsible for ;-)

Benefit to Fedora
Fedora aims to showcase the latest in free and open source software - we should have the most recent release of Python 3.

Scope
The core python3 src.rpm has been rebuilt with the latest 3.2 code.

There have been some slight changes to the on-disk layout of how Python organizes extension modules: PEP-3147 and PEP-3149.

https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Python3#Python_3_already_in_Fedora indicates that as of Fedora 15 there are currently about 25-30 extension modules for Python 3 available via RPM. These will need rebuilding to cope with disk layout changes, and for the latest .pyc/.pyo bytecode format. I believe that the Fedora 15 mass rebuild will cover this; I will do any remaining rebuilds as necessary before the release. Many have already been done by package maintainers.

How To Test
Interested testers do not need special hardware. If you have a favorite Python 3 script, module, or application, please test it with Python 3.2 and verify that it still works as you expect.

My own test plan:
 * Smoketest of the interpreter
 * Run the upstream regression test suite (this is done during %check)

User Experience
Users should not notice any difference, other than the availability of the 3.2 interpreter

Dependencies
See notes in "Scope" above.

Contingency Plan
The bulk of the work is done, and appears stable.

Documentation
What's New In Python 3.2

Release Notes
The system Python 3 stack has been upgraded to 3.2 (the system Python 2 stack remains at 2.7), bringing in hundreds of fixes and tweaks; for a list of changes see http://docs.python.org/dev/whatsnew/3.2.html

Comments and Discussion

 * See Talk:Features/Python_3.2