**************************** What's New In Python 3.4 **************************** .. :Author: Someone (uncomment if there is a principal author) .. Rules for maintenance: * Anyone can add text to this document, but the maintainer reserves the right to rewrite any additions. In particular, for obscure or esoteric features, the maintainer may reduce any addition to a simple reference to the new documentation rather than explaining the feature inline. * While the maintainer will periodically go through Misc/NEWS and add changes, it's best not to rely on this. We know from experience that any changes that aren't in the What's New documentation around the time of the original release will remain largely unknown to the community for years, even if they're added later. We also know from experience that other priorities can arise, and the maintainer will run out of time to do updates -- in such cases, end users will be much better served by partial notifications that at least give a hint about new features to investigate. * This is not a complete list of every single change; completeness is the purpose of Misc/NEWS. The What's New should focus on changes that are visible to Python *users* and that *require* a feature release (i.e. most bug fixes should only be recorded in Misc/NEWS) * PEPs should not be marked Final until they have an entry in What's New. A placeholder entry that is just a section header and a link to the PEP (e.g ":pep:`397` has been implemented") is acceptable. If a PEP has been implemented and noted in What's New, don't forget to mark it as Final! * If you want to draw your new text to the attention of the maintainer, add 'XXX' to the beginning of the paragraph or section. * It's OK to add just a very brief note about a change. For example: "The :ref:`~socket.transmogrify()` function was added to the :mod:`socket` module." The maintainer will research the change and write the necessary text (if appropriate). The advantage of doing this is that even if no more descriptive text is ever added, readers will at least have a notification that the new feature exists and a link to the relevant documentation. * You can comment out your additions if you like, but it's not necessary (especially when a final release is some months away). * Credit the author of a patch or bugfix. Just the name is sufficient; the e-mail address isn't necessary. * It's helpful to add the bug/patch number as a comment: The :ref:`~socket.transmogrify()` function was added to the :mod:`socket` module. (Contributed by P.Y. Developer in :issue:`12345`.) This saves the maintainer the effort of going through the Mercurial log when researching a change. * Cross referencing tip: :ref:`mod.attr` will display as ``mod.attr``, while :ref:`~mod.attr` will display as ``attr``. This article explains the new features in Python 3.4, compared to 3.3. .. Python 3.4 was released on TBD. For full details, see the `changelog `_. .. note:: Prerelease users should be aware that this document is currently in draft form. It will be updated substantially as Python 3.4 moves towards release, so it's worth checking back even after reading earlier versions. .. seealso:: :pep:`429` -- Python 3.4 Release Schedule Summary -- Release Highlights ============================= .. This section singles out the most important changes in Python 3.4. Brevity is key. New syntax features: * No new syntax features were added in Python 3.4. New expected features for Python implementations: * :ref:`pip should always be "available" ` (:pep:`453`). * :ref:`Make newly created file descriptors non-inheritable ` (:pep:`446`). * command line option for :ref:`isolated mode `, (:issue:`16499`). * :ref:`improvements in the handling of codecs ` that are not text encodings (multiple issues). * :ref:`A ModuleSpec Type ` for the Import System (:pep:`451`). (Affects importer authors.) New library modules: * :mod:`asyncio`: :ref:`New provisional API for asynchronous IO ` (:pep:`3156`). * :mod:`ensurepip`: :ref:`Bootstrapping the pip installer ` (:pep:`453`). * :mod:`enum`: :ref:`Support for enumeration types ` (:pep:`435`). * :mod:`pathlib`: :ref:`Object-oriented filesystem paths ` (:pep:`428`). * :mod:`selectors`: :ref:`High-level and efficient I/O multiplexing `, built upon the :mod:`select` module primitives (part of :pep:`3156`). * :mod:`statistics`: A basic :ref:`numerically stable statistics library ` (:pep:`450`). * :mod:`tracemalloc`: :ref:`Trace Python memory allocations ` (:pep:`454`). Significantly Improved Library Modules: * :ref:`Single-dispatch generic functions ` in :mod:`functools` (:pep:`443`). * New :mod:`pickle` :ref:`protocol 4 ` (:pep:`3154`). * :ref:`TLSv1.1 and TLSv1.2 support ` for :mod:`ssl` (:issue:`16692`). * :mod:`multiprocessing` now has :ref:`an option to avoid using os.fork on Unix ` (:issue:`8713`). * :mod:`email` has a new submodule, :mod:`~email.contentmanager`, and a new :mod:`~email.message.Message` subclass (:class:`~email.contentmanager.EmailMessage`) that :ref:`simplify MIME handling ` (:issue:`18891`). CPython implementation improvements: * :ref:`Safe object finalization ` (:pep:`442`). * Leveraging :pep:`442`, :ref:`module globals are no longer set to None during finalization `, in most cases (:issue:`18214`). * :ref:`Configurable memory allocators ` (:pep:`445`). * :ref:`Secure and interchangeable hash algorithm ` (:pep:`456`). * :ref:`Argument Clinic ` (:pep:`436`). * The :mod:`marshal` format has been made :ref:`more compact and efficient ` (:issue:`16475`). Please read on for a comprehensive list of user-facing changes, including many other smaller improvements, CPython optimizations, deprecations, and potential porting issues. New Expected Features for Python Implementations ================================================ .. _whatsnew-pep-453: PEP 453: Explicit Bootstrapping of PIP in Python Installations -------------------------------------------------------------- The new :mod:`ensurepip` module (defined in :pep:`453`) provides a standard cross-platform mechanism to boostrap the pip installer into Python installations and virtual environments. The :mod:`venv` module and the :command:`pyvenv` utility make use of this module to make ``pip`` readily available in virtual environments. When using the command line interface, ``pip`` is installed by default, while for the module API installation of ``pip`` must be requested explicitly. For CPython source builds on POSIX systems, the ``make install`` and ``make altinstall`` commands bootstrap ``pip`` by default. This behaviour can be controlled through configure options, and overridden through Makefile options. On Windows and Mac OS X, the CPython installers now offer the option to install ``pip`` along with CPython itself. As `discussed in the PEP`__, platform packagers may choose not to install ``pip`` by default, as long as the command ``pip``, when invoked, provides clear and simple directions on how to install ``pip`` on the platform. __ http://www.python.org/dev/peps/pep-0453/#recommendations-for-downstream-distributors .. note:: The implementation of PEP 453 is still a work in progress. Refer to :issue:`19347` for the progress on additional steps: * Having the binary installers install ``pip`` by default * Recommending the use of ``pip`` in the "Installing Python Module" documentation. .. seealso:: :pep:`453` -- Explicit bootstrapping of pip in Python installations PEP written by Donald Stufft and Nick Coghlan, implemented by Donald Stufft, Nick Coghlan, Martin von Löwis and Ned Deily. .. _whatsnew-pep-446: PEP 446: Make Newly Created File Descriptors Non-Inheritable ------------------------------------------------------------ :pep:`446` makes newly created file descriptors :ref:`non-inheritable `. New functions and methods: * :func:`os.get_inheritable`, :func:`os.set_inheritable` * :func:`os.get_handle_inheritable`, :func:`os.set_handle_inheritable` * :meth:`socket.socket.get_inheritable`, :meth:`socket.socket.set_inheritable` .. seealso:: :pep:`446` -- Make newly created file descriptors non-inheritable PEP written and implemented by Victor Stinner. .. _codec-handling-improvements: Improvements to Codec Handling ------------------------------ Since it was first introduced, the :mod:`codecs` module has always been intended to operate as a type-neutral dynamic encoding and decoding system. However, its close coupling with the Python text model, especially the type restricted convenience methods on the builtin :class:`str`, :class:`bytes` and :class:`bytearray` types, has historically obscured that fact. As a key step in clarifying the situation, the :meth:`codecs.encode` and :meth:`codecs.decode` convenience functions are now properly documented in Python 2.7, 3.3 and 3.4. These functions have existed in the :mod:`codecs` module (and have been covered by the regression test suite) since Python 2.4, but were previously only discoverable through runtime introspection. Unlike the convenience methods on :class:`str`, :class:`bytes` and :class:`bytearray`, these convenience functions support arbitrary codecs in both Python 2 and Python 3, rather than being limited to Unicode text encodings (in Python 3) or ``basestring`` <-> ``basestring`` conversions (in Python 2). In Python 3.4, the interpreter is able to identify the known non-text encodings provided in the standard library and direct users towards these general purpose convenience functions when appropriate:: >>> b"abcdef".decode("hex") Traceback (most recent call last): File "", line 1, in LookupError: 'hex' is not a text encoding; use codecs.decode() to handle arbitrary codecs >>> "hello".encode("rot13") Traceback (most recent call last): File "", line 1, in LookupError: 'rot13' is not a text encoding; use codecs.encode() to handle arbitrary codecs In a related change, whenever it is feasible without breaking backwards compatibility, exceptions raised during encoding and decoding operations will be wrapped in a chained exception of the same type that mentions the name of the codec responsible for producing the error:: >>> import codecs >>> codecs.decode(b"abcdefgh", "hex") binascii.Error: Non-hexadecimal digit found The above exception was the direct cause of the following exception: Traceback (most recent call last): File "", line 1, in binascii.Error: decoding with 'hex' codec failed (Error: Non-hexadecimal digit found) >>> codecs.encode("hello", "bz2") TypeError: 'str' does not support the buffer interface The above exception was the direct cause of the following exception: Traceback (most recent call last): File "", line 1, in TypeError: encoding with 'bz2' codec failed (TypeError: 'str' does not support the buffer interface) Finally, as the examples above show, these improvements have permitted the restoration of the convenience aliases for the non-Unicode codecs that were themselves restored in Python 3.2. This means that encoding binary data to and from its hexadecimal representation (for example) can now be written as:: >>> from codecs import encode, decode >>> encode(b"hello", "hex") b'68656c6c6f' >>> decode(b"68656c6c6f", "hex") b'hello' The binary and text transforms provided in the standard library are detailed in :ref:`binary-transforms` and :ref:`text-transforms`. (Contributed by Nick Coghlan in :issue:`7475`, , :issue:`17827`, :issue:`17828` and :issue:`19619`) .. _whatsnew-pep-451: PEP 451: A ModuleSpec Type for the Import System ------------------------------------------------ :pep:`451` provides an encapsulation of the information about a module that the import machinery will use to load it (that is, a module specification). This helps simplify both the import implementation and several import-related APIs. The change is also a stepping stone for `several future import-related improvements`__. __ https://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-dev/2013-November/130111.html The public-facing changes from the PEP are entirely backward-compatible. Furthermore, they should be transparent to everyone but importer authors. Key finder and loader methods have been deprecated, but they will continue working. New importers should use the new methods described in the PEP. Existing importers should be updated to implement the new methods. Other Language Changes ---------------------- Some smaller changes made to the core Python language are: * Unicode database updated to UCD version 6.3. * :func:`min` and :func:`max` now accept a *default* argument that can be used to specify the value they return if the iterable they are evaluating has no elements. Contributed by Julian Berman in :issue:`18111`. * Module objects are now :mod:`weakref`'able. * Module ``__file__`` attributes (and related values) should now always contain absolute paths by default, with the sole exception of ``__main__.__file__`` when a script has been executed directly using a relative path (Contributed by Brett Cannon in :issue:`18416`). * Now all the UTF-\* codecs (except UTF-7) reject surrogates during both encoding and decoding unless the ``surrogatepass`` error handler is used, with the exception of the UTF-16 decoder that accepts valid surrogate pairs, and the UTF-16 encoder that produces them while encoding non-BMP characters. Contributed by Victor Stinner, Kang-Hao (Kenny) Lu and Serhiy Storchaka in :issue:`12892`. New Modules =========== .. _whatsnew-asyncio: asyncio ------- The new :mod:`asyncio` module (defined in :pep:`3156`) provides a standard pluggable event loop model for Python, providing solid asynchronous IO support in the standard library, and making it easier for other event loop implementations to interoperate with the standard library and each other. For Python 3.4, this module is considered a :term:`provisional API`. .. seealso:: :pep:`3156` -- Asynchronous IO Support Rebooted: the "asyncio" Module PEP written and implementation led by Guido van Rossum. .. _whatsnew-ensurepip: ensurepip --------- The new :mod:`ensurepip` module is the primary infrastructure for the :pep:`453` implementation. In the normal course of events end users will not need to interact with this module, but it can be used to manually bootstrap ``pip`` if the automated bootstrapping into an installation or virtual environment was declined. :mod:`ensurepip` includes a bundled copy of ``pip``, up-to-date as of the first release candidate of the release of CPython with which it ships (this applies to both maintenance releases and feature releases). ``ensurepip`` does not access the internet. (If the installation has Internet access, it is of course possible to upgrade ``pip`` to a release more recent than the bundled ``pip`` by using the bundled ``pip`` command itself once it is installed.) The module is named *ensure*\ pip because if called when ``pip`` is already installed, it does nothing. It also has an ``--upgrade`` option that will cause it to install the bundled copy of ``pip`` if the existing installed version of ``pip`` is older than the bundled copy. .. _whatsnew-enum: enum ---- The new :mod:`enum` module (defined in :pep:`435`) provides a standard implementation of enumeration types, allowing other modules (such as :mod:`socket`) to provide more informative error messages and better debugging support by replacing opaque integer constants with backwards compatible enumeration values. .. seealso:: :pep:`435` -- Adding an Enum type to the Python standard library PEP written by Barry Warsaw, Eli Bendersky and Ethan Furman, implemented by Ethan Furman. .. _whatsnew-pathlib: pathlib ------- The new :mod:`pathlib` module offers classes representing filesystem paths with semantics appropriate for different operating systems. Path classes are divided between *pure paths*, which provide purely computational operations without I/O, and *concrete paths*, which inherit from pure paths but also provide I/O operations. For Python 3.4, this module is considered a :term:`provisional API`. .. seealso:: :pep:`428` -- The pathlib module -- object-oriented filesystem paths PEP written and implemented by Antoine Pitrou. .. _whatsnew-selectors: selectors --------- The new :mod:`selectors` module (created as part of implementing :pep:`3156`) allows high-level and efficient I/O multiplexing, built upon the :mod:`select` module primitives. .. _whatsnew-statistics: statistics ---------- The new :mod:`statistics` module (defined in :pep:`450`) offers some core statistics functionality directly in the standard library. This module supports calculation of the mean, median, mode, variance and standard deviation of a data series. .. seealso:: :pep:`450` -- Adding A Statistics Module To The Standard Library PEP written and implemented by Steven D'Aprano .. _whatsnew-tracemalloc: tracemalloc ----------- The new :mod:`tracemalloc` module (defined in :pep:`454`) is a debug tool to trace memory blocks allocated by Python. It provides the following information: * Traceback where an object was allocated * Statistics on allocated memory blocks per filename and per line number: total size, number and average size of allocated memory blocks * Compute the differences between two snapshots to detect memory leaks .. seealso:: :pep:`454` -- Add a new tracemalloc module to trace Python memory allocations PEP written and implemented by Victor Stinner Improved Modules ================ abc --- New function :func:`abc.get_cache_token` can be used to know when to invalidate caches that are affected by changes in the object graph. (Contributed by Łukasz Langa in :issue:`16832`.) New class :class:`~abc.ABC` has :class:`~abc.ABCMeta` as its meta class. Using ``ABC`` as a base class has essentially the same effect as specifying ``metaclass=abc.ABCMeta``, but is simpler to type and easier to read. (Contributed by Bruno Dupuis in :issue:`16049`.) aifc ---- The :meth:`~aifc.getparams` method now returns a namedtuple rather than a plain tuple. (Contributed by Claudiu Popa in :issue:`17818`.) :func:`aifc.open` now supports the context manager protocol: when used in a :keyword:`with` block, the :meth:`~aifc.aifc.close` method of the returned object will be called automatically at the end of the block. (Contributed by Serhiy Storchacha in :issue:`16486`.) argparse -------- The :class:`~argparse.FileType` class now accepts *encoding* and *errors* arguments, which are passed through to :func:`open`. (Contributed by Lucas Maystre in :issue:`11175`.) audioop ------- Added support for 24-bit samples (:issue:`12866`). Added the :func:`~audioop.byteswap` function to convert big-endian samples to little-endian and vice versa (:issue:`19641`). base64 ------ The encoding and decoding functions in :mod:`base64` now accept any :term:`bytes-like object` in cases where it previously required a :class:`bytes` or :class:`bytearray` instance (:issue:`17839`). colorsys -------- The number of digits in the coefficients for the RGB --- YIQ conversions have been expanded so that they match the FCC NTSC versions. The change in results should be less than 1% and may better match results found elsewhere. contextlib ---------- The new :class:`contextlib.suppress` context manager helps to clarify the intent of code that deliberately suppresses exceptions from a single statement. (Contributed by Raymond Hettinger in :issue:`15806` and Zero Piraeus in :issue:`19266`) The new :func:`contextlib.redirect_stdout` context manager makes it easier for utility scripts to handle inflexible APIs that don't provide any options to retrieve their output as a string or direct it to somewhere other than :data:`sys.stdout`. In conjunction with :class:`io.StringIO`, this context manager is also useful for checking expected output from command line utilities. (Contribute by Raymond Hettinger in :issue:`15805`) The :mod:`contextlib` documentation has also been updated to include a :ref:`discussion ` of the differences between single use, reusable and reentrant context managers. dis --- The :mod:`dis` module is now built around an :class:`~dis.Instruction` class that provides details of individual bytecode operations and a :func:`~dis.get_instructions` iterator that emits the Instruction stream for a given piece of Python code. The various display tools in the :mod:`dis` module have been updated to be based on these new components. The new :class:`dis.Bytecode` class provides an object-oriented API for inspecting bytecode, both in human-readable form and for iterating over instructions. (Contributed by Nick Coghlan, Ryan Kelly and Thomas Kluyver in :issue:`11816` and Claudiu Popa in :issue:`17916`) doctest ------- A new :ref:`option flag `, :data:`~doctest.FAIL_FAST`, halts test running as soon as the first failure is detected. (Contributed by R. David Murray and Daniel Urban in :issue:`16522`.) The :mod:`doctest` command line interface now uses :mod:`argparse`, and has two new options, ``-o`` and ``-f``. ``-o`` allows :ref:`doctest options ` to be specified on the command line, and ``-f`` is a shorthand for ``-o FAIL_FAST`` (to parallel the similar option supported by the :mod:`unittest` CLI). (Contributed by R. David Murray in :issue:`11390`.) email ----- :meth:`~email.message.Message.as_string` now accepts a *policy* argument to override the default policy of the message when generating a string representation of it. This means that ``as_string`` can now be used in more circumstances, instead of having to create and use a :mod:`~email.generator` in order to pass formatting parameters to its ``flatten`` method. New method :meth:`~email.message.Message.as_bytes` added to produce a bytes representation of the message in a fashion similar to how ``as_string`` produces a string representation. It does not accept the *maxheaderlen* argument, but does accept the *unixfrom* and *policy* arguments. The :class:`~email.message.Message` :meth:`~email.message.Message.__bytes__` method calls it, meaning that ``bytes(mymsg)`` will now produce the intuitive result: a bytes object containing the fully formatted message. (Contributed by R. David Murray in :issue:`18600`.) .. _whatsnew_email_contentmanager: A pair of new subclasses of :class:`~email.message.Message` have been added, along with a new sub-module, :mod:`~email.contentmanager`. All documentation is currently in the new module, which is being added as part of the new :term:`provisional ` email API. These classes provide a number of new methods that make extracting content from and inserting content into email messages much easier. See the :mod:`~email.contentmanager` documentation for details. These API additions complete the bulk of the work that was planned as part of the email6 project. The currently provisional API is scheduled to become final in Python 3.5 (possibly with a few minor additions in the area of error handling). (Contributed by R. David Murray in :issue:`18891`.) functools --------- The new :func:`~functools.partialmethod` descriptor bring partial argument application to descriptors, just as :func:`~functools.partial` provides for normal callables. The new descriptor also makes it easier to get arbitrary callables (including :func:`~functools.partial` instances) to behave like normal instance methods when included in a class definition. (Contributed by Alon Horev and Nick Coghlan in :issue:`4331`) .. _whatsnew-singledispatch: The new :func:`~functools.singledispatch` decorator brings support for single-dispatch generic functions to the Python standard library. Where object oriented programming focuses on grouping multiple operations on a common set of data into a class, a generic function focuses on grouping multiple implementations of an operation that allows it to work with *different* kinds of data. .. seealso:: :pep:`443` -- Single-dispatch generic functions PEP written and implemented by Łukasz Langa. A pure-python version of the :func:`~functools.partial` function is now in the stdlib; in CPython it is overridden by the C accelerated version, but it is available for other implementations to use. (Contributed by Brian Thorne in :issue:`12428`.) gc -- New :func:`~gc.get_stats` returns a list of three per-generation dictionaries containing the collections statistics since interpreter startup. (Contributed by Antoine Pitrou in :issue:`16351`.) hashlib ------- New :func:`hashlib.pbkdf2_hmac` function. (Contributed by Christian Heimes in :issue:`18582`) html ---- Added a new :func:`html.unescape` function that converts HTML5 character references to the corresponding Unicode characters. (Contributed by Ezio Melotti in :issue:`2927`) Added a new *convert_charrefs* keyword argument to :class:`~html.parser.HTMLParser` that, when ``True``, automatically converts all character references. For backward-compatibility, its value defaults to ``False``, but it will change to ``True`` in future versions, so you are invited to set it explicitly and update your code to use this new feature. (Contributed by Ezio Melotti in :issue:`13633`) The *strict* argument of :class:`~html.parser.HTMLParser` is now deprecated. (Contributed by Ezio Melotti in :issue:`15114`) http ---- :meth:`~http.server.BaseHTTPRequestHandler.send_error` now accepts an optional additional *exaplain* parameter which can be used to provide an extended error description, overriding the hardcoded default if there is one. This extended error description will be formatted using the :attr:`~http.server.HTTP.error_message_format` attribute and sent as the body of the error response. (Contributed by Karl Cow in :issue:`12921`.) importlib --------- The :class:`~importlib.abc.InspectLoader` ABC defines a new method, :meth:`~importlib.abc.InspectLoader.source_to_code` that accepts source data and a path and returns a code object. The default implementation is equivalent to ``compile(data, path, 'exec', dont_inherit=True)``. (Contributed by Eric Snow and Brett Cannon in :issue:`15627`.) inspect ------- The inspect module now offers a basic :ref:`command line interface ` to quickly display source code and other information for modules, classes and functions. (Contributed by Claudiu Popa and Nick Coghlan in :issue:`18626`) :func:`~inspect.unwrap` makes it easy to unravel wrapper function chains created by :func:`functools.wraps` (and any other API that sets the ``__wrapped__`` attribute on a wrapper function). (Contributed by Daniel Urban, Aaron Iles and Nick Coghlan in :issue:`13266`) As part of the implementation of the new :mod:`enum` module, the :mod:`inspect` module now has substantially better support for custom ``__dir__`` methods and dynamic class attributes provided through metaclasses (Contributed by Ethan Furman in :issue:`18929` and :issue:`19030`) .. _whatsnew-marshal-3: marshal ------- The default :mod:`marshal` version has been bumped to 3. The code implementing the new version restores the Python2 behavior of recording only one copy of interned strings and preserving the interning on deserialization, and extends this "one copy" ability to any object type (including handling recursive references). This reduces both the size of ``.pyc`` files and the amount of memory a module occupies in memory when it is loaded from a ``.pyc`` (or ``.pyo``) file. (Contributed by Kristján Valur Jónsson in :issue:`16475`.) mmap ---- mmap objects can now be weakref'ed. (Contributed by Valerie Lambert in :issue:`4885`.) mock ---- :mod:`~unittest.mock` objects now inspect their specification signatures when matching calls, which means an argument can now be matched by either position or name, instead of only by position. (Contributed by Antoine Pitrou in :issue:`17015`.) multiprocessing --------------- .. _whatsnew-multiprocessing-no-fork: On Unix, two new :ref:`start methods ` (``spawn`` and ``forkserver``) have been added for starting processes using :mod:`multiprocessing`. These make the mixing of processes with threads more robust, and the ``spawn`` method matches the semantics that multiprocessing has always used on Windows. (Contributed by Richard Oudkerk in :issue:`8713`). Also, except when using the old *fork* start method, child processes will no longer inherit unneeded handles/file descriptors from their parents (part of :issue:`8713`). :mod:`multiprocessing` now relies on :mod:`runpy` (which implements the ``-m`` switch) to initialise ``__main__`` appropriately in child processes when using the ``spawn`` or ``forkserver`` start methods. This resolves some edge cases where combining multiprocessing, the ``-m`` command line switch and explicit relative imports could cause obscure failures in child processes. (Contributed by Nick Coghlan in :issue:`19946`) os -- New functions to get and set the :ref:`inheritable flag ` of a file descriptors or a Windows handle: * :func:`os.get_inheritable`, :func:`os.set_inheritable` * :func:`os.get_handle_inheritable`, :func:`os.set_handle_inheritable` pdb --- The ``print`` command has been removed from :mod:`pdb`, restoring access to the ``print`` function. Rationale: Python2's ``pdb`` did not have a ``print`` command; instead, entering ``print`` executed the ``print`` statement. In Python3 ``print`` was mistakenly made an alias for the pdb :pdbcmd:`p` command. ``p``, however, prints the ``repr`` of its argument, not the ``str`` like the Python2 ``print`` command did. Worse, the Python3 ``pdb print`` command shadowed the Python3 ``print`` function, making it inaccessible at the ``pdb`` prompt. (Contributed by Connor Osborn in :issue:`18764`.) .. _whatsnew-protocol-4: pickle ------ protocol 4 :mod:`pickle` now supports (but does not use by default) a new pickle protocol, protocol 4. This new protocol addresses a number of issues that were present in previous protocols, such as the serialization of nested classes, very large strings and containers, or classes whose :meth:`__new__` method takes keyword-only arguments. It also provides some efficiency improvements. .. seealso:: :pep:`3154` -- Pickle protocol 4 PEP written by Antoine Pitrou and implemented by Alexandre Vassalotti. poplib ------ Two new methods have been added to :mod:`poplib`: :meth:`~poplib.POP3.capa`, which returns the list of capabilities advertised by the POP server, and :meth:`~poplib.POP3.stls`, which switches a clear-text POP3 session into an encrypted POP3 session if the POP server supports it. (Contributed by Lorenzo Catucci in :issue:`4473`.) pprint ------ The :mod:`pprint` module now supports *compact* mode for formatting long sequences (:issue:`19132`). pty --- :func:`pty.spawn` now returns the status value from :func:`os.waitpid` on the child process, instead of ``None``. (Contributed by Gregory P. Smith.) pydoc ----- While significant changes have not been made to :mod:`pydoc` directly, its handling of custom ``__dir__`` methods and various descriptor behaviours has been improved substantially by the underlying changes in the :mod:`inspect` module. re -- Added :func:`re.fullmatch` function and :meth:`regex.fullmatch` method, which anchor the pattern at both ends of the string to match. (Contributed by Matthew Barnett in :issue:`16203`.) The repr of :ref:`regex objects ` now includes the pattern and the flags; the repr of :ref:`match objects ` now includes the start, end, and the part of the string that matched. (Contributed by Serhiy Storchaka in :issue:`13592` and :issue:`17087`.) resource -------- New :func:`resource.prlimit` function and Linux specific constants. (Contributed by Christian Heimes in :issue:`16595` and :issue:`19324`.) select ------ :class:`~select.epoll` objects now support the context management protocol. When used in a :keyword:`with` statement, the :meth:`~select.epoll.close` method will be called automatically at the end of the block. (Contributed by Serhiy Storchaka in :issue:`16488`.) shelve ------ :class:`~shelve.Shelf` instances may now be used in :keyword:`with` statements, and will be automatically closed at the end of the :keyword:`with` block. (Contributed by Filip Gruszczyński in :issue:`13896`.) smtplib ------- :exc:`~smtplib.SMTPException` is now a subclass of :exc:`OSError`, which allows both socket level errors and SMTP protocol level errors to be caught in one try/except statement by code that only cares whether or not an error occurred. (:issue:`2118`). socket ------ The socket module now supports the :data:`~socket.CAN_BCM` protocol on platforms that support it. (Contributed by Brian Thorne in :issue:`15359`.) Socket objects have new methods to get or set their :ref:`inheritable flag `, :meth:`~socket.socket.get_inheritable` and :meth:`~socket.socket.set_inheritable`. The ``socket.AF_*`` and ``socket.SOCK_*`` constants are now enumeration values using the new :mod:`enum` module. This allows meaningful names to be printed during debugging, instead of integer "magic numbers". sqlite3 ------- A new boolean parameter, *uri*, to the :func:`~sqlite3.connect` function can be used to indicate that the *database* parameter is a ``uri`` (see the `SQLite URI documentation `_). (Contributed by poq in :issue:`13773`.) ssl --- .. _whatsnew-tls-11-12: :data:`~ssl.PROTOCOL_TLSv1_1` and :data:`~ssl.PROTOCOL_TLSv1_2` (TLSv1.1 and TLSv1.2 support) have been added; support for these protocols is only available if Python is linked with OpenSSL 1.0.1 or later. (Contributed by Michele Orrù and Antoine Pitrou in :issue:`16692`) New diagnostic functions :func:`~ssl.get_default_verify_paths`, :meth:`~ssl.SSLContext.cert_store_stats` and :meth:`~ssl.SSLContext.get_ca_certs` (Contributed by Christian Heimes in :issue:`18143` and :issue:`18147`) Add :func:`ssl.enum_cert_store` to retrieve certificates and CRL from Windows' cert store. (Contributed by Christian Heimes in :issue:`17134`.) Support for server-side SNI using the new :meth:`ssl.SSLContext.set_servername_callback` method. (Contributed by Daniel Black in :issue:`8109`.) stat ---- The :mod:`stat` module is now backed by a C implementation in :mod:`_stat`. A C implementation is required as most of the values aren't standardized and platform-dependent. (Contributed by Christian Heimes in :issue:`11016`.) The module supports new file types: door, event port and whiteout. struct ------ Streaming struct unpacking using :func:`struct.iter_unpack`. (Contributed by Antoine Pitrou in :issue:`17804`.) sunau ----- The :meth:`~sunau.getparams` method now returns a namedtuple rather than a plain tuple. (Contributed by Claudiu Popa in :issue:`18901`.) :meth:`sunau.open` now supports the context manager protocol (:issue:`18878`). sys --- New function :func:`sys.getallocatedblocks` returns the current number of blocks allocated by the interpreter (in CPython with the default ``--with-pymalloc`` setting, this is allocations made through the :c:func:`PyObject_Malloc` API). This can be useful for tracking memory leaks, especially if automated via a test suite. (Contributed by Antoine Pitrou in :issue:`13390`.) traceback --------- A new :func:`traceback.clear_frames` function takes a traceback object and clears the local variables in all of the frames it references, reducing the amount of memory consumed (:issue:`1565525`). urllib ------ :mod:`urllib.request` now supports ``data:`` URLs via the :class:`~urllib.request.DataHandler` class. (Contributed by Mathias Panzenböck in :issue:`16423`.) unittest -------- Support for easy dynamically-generated subtests using the :meth:`~unittest.TestCase.subTest` context manager. (Contributed by Antoine Pitrou in :issue:`16997`.) :func:`unittest.main` now also accepts an iterable of test names for *defaultTest*, where previously it only accepted a single test name as a string. (Contributed by Jyrki Pulliainen in :issue:`15132`.) If :class:`~unittest.SkipTest` is raised during test discovery (that is, at the module level in the test file), it is now reported as a skip instead of an error. (Contributed by Zach Ware in :issue:`16935`.) :meth:`~unittest.TestLoader.discover` now sorts the discovered files to provide consistent test ordering. (Contributed by Martin Melin and Jeff Ramnani in :issue:`16709`.) venv ---- :mod:`venv` now includes activation scripts for the ``csh`` and ``fish`` shells (Contributed by Andrew Svetlov in :issue:`15417`.) wave ---- The :meth:`~wave.getparams` method now returns a namedtuple rather than a plain tuple. (Contributed by Claudiu Popa in :issue:`17487`.) :meth:`wave.open` now supports the context manager protocol. (Contributed by Claudiu Popa in :issue:`17616`.) weakref ------- New :class:`~weakref.WeakMethod` class simulates weak references to bound methods. (Contributed by Antoine Pitrou in :issue:`14631`.) New :class:`~weakref.finalize` class makes it possible to register a callback to be invoked when an object is garbage collected, without needing to carefully manage the lifecycle of the weak reference itself. (Contributed by Richard Oudkerk in :issue:`15528`) xml.etree --------- Add an event-driven parser for non-blocking applications, :class:`~xml.etree.ElementTree.XMLPullParser`. (Contributed by Antoine Pitrou in :issue:`17741`.) The :mod:`xml.etree.ElementTree` :func:`~xml.etree.ElementTree.tostring` and :func:`~xml.etree.ElementTree.tostringlist` functions, and the :class:`~xml.etree.ElementTree.ElementTree` :meth:`~xml.etree.ElementTree.ElementTree.write` method, now have a *short_empty_elements* :ref:`keyword-only parameter ` providing control over whether elements with no content are written in abbreviated (````) or expanded (````) form. (Contributed by Ariel Poliak and Serhiy Storchaka in :issue:`14377`.) zipfile.PyZipfile ----------------- Add a filter function to ignore some packages (tests for instance), :meth:`~zipfile.PyZipFile.writepy`. (Contributed by Christian Tismer in :issue:`19274`.) CPython Implementation Changes ============================== .. _whatsnew-pep-445: PEP 445: Customization of CPython Memory Allocators --------------------------------------------------- :pep:`445` adds new C level interfaces to customize memory allocation in the CPython interpreter. .. seealso:: :pep:`445` -- Add new APIs to customize Python memory allocators PEP written and implemented by Victor Stinner. .. _whatsnew-pep-442: PEP 442: Safe Object Finalization --------------------------------- :pep:`442` removes the current limitations and quirks of object finalization in CPython. With it, objects with :meth:`__del__` methods, as well as generators with :keyword:`finally` clauses, can be finalized when they are part of a reference cycle. As part of this change, module globals are no longer forcibly set to :const:`None` during interpreter shutdown in most cases, instead relying on the normal operation of the cyclic garbage collector. This avoids a whole class of interpreter-shutdown-time errors, usually involving ``__del__`` methods, that have plagued Python since the cyclic GC was first introduced. .. seealso:: :pep:`442` -- Safe object finalization PEP written and implemented by Antoine Pitrou. .. _whatsnew-pep-456: PEP 456: Secure and Interchangeable Hash Algorithm -------------------------------------------------- :pep:`456` follows up on earlier security fix work done on Python's hash algorithm to address certain DOS attacks to which public facing APIs backed by dictionary lookups may be subject. (See :issue:`14621` for the start of the current round of improvements.) The PEP unifies CPython's hash code to make it easier for a packager to substitute a different hash algorithm, and switches Python's default implementation to a SipHash implementation on platforms that have a 64 bit data type. Any performance differences in comparison with the older FNV algorithm are trivial. The PEP adds additional fields to the :func:`sys.hash_info` struct sequence to describe the hash algorithm in use by the currently executing binary. Otherwise, the PEP does not alter any existing CPython APIs. .. _whatsnew-pep-436: PEP 436: Argument Clinic ------------------------ "Argument Clinic" (:pep:`436`) is now part of the CPython build process and can be used to simplify the process of defining and maintaining accurate signatures for builtins and standard library extension modules implemented in C. .. note:: The Argument Clinic PEP is not fully up to date with the state of the implementation. This has been deemed acceptable by the release manager and core development team in this case, as Argument Clinic will not be made available as a public API for third party use in Python 3.4. .. seealso:: :pep:`436` -- The Argument Clinic DSL PEP written and implemented by Larry Hastings. Other Build and C API Changes ----------------------------- * The new :c:func:`Py_SetStandardStreamEncoding` pre-initialization API allows applications embedding the CPython interpreter to reliably force a particular encoding and error handler for the standard streams (Contributed by Bastien Montagne and Nick Coghlan in :issue:`16129`) * Most Python C APIs that don't mutate string arguments are now correctly marked as accepting ``const char *`` rather than ``char *`` (Contributed by Serhiy Storchaka in :issue:`1772673`). * New shell version of ``python-config``; can be used even when a python interpreter is not available (for example, in cross compilation scenarios). Other Improvements ================== * Tab-completion is now enabled by default in the interactive interpreter. (Contributed by Antoine Pitrou and Éric Araujo in :issue:`5845`.) * Invoking the Python interpreter with ``--version`` now outputs the version to standard output instead of standard error (:issue:`18338`). Similar changes were made to :mod:`argparse` (:issue:`18920`) and other modules that have script-like invocation capabilities (:issue:`18922`). * The CPython Windows installer now adds ``.py`` to the :envvar:`PATHEXT` variable when extensions are registered, allowing users to run a python script at the windows command prompt by just typing its name without the ``.py`` extension. (Contributed by Paul Moore in :issue:`18569`.) * A new ``make`` target `coverage-report `_ will build python, run the test suite, and generate an HTML coverage report for the C codebase using ``gcov`` and `lcov `_. * The ``-R`` option to the :ref:`python regression test suite ` now also checks for memory allocation leaks, using :func:`sys.getallocatedblocks()`. (Contributed by Antoine Pitrou in :issue:`13390`). Significant Optimizations ========================= * The UTF-32 decoder is now 3x to 4x faster. * The cost of hash collisions for sets is now reduced. Each hash table probe now checks a series of consecutive, adjacent key/hash pairs before continuing to make random probes through the hash table. This exploits cache locality to make collision resolution less expensive. The collision resolution scheme can be described as a hybrid of linear probing and open addressing. The number of additional linear probes defaults to nine. This can be changed at compile-time by defining LINEAR_PROBES to be any value. Set LINEAR_PROBES=0 to turn-off linear probing entirely. (Contributed by Raymond Hettinger in :issue:`18771`.) * The interpreter starts about 30% faster. A couple of measures lead to the speedup. The interpreter loads fewer modules on startup, e.g. the :mod:`re`, :mod:`collections` and :mod:`locale` modules and their dependencies are no longer imported by default. The marshal module has been improved to load compiled Python code faster. (Contributed by Antoine Pitrou, Christian Heimes and Victor Stinner in :issue:`19219`, :issue:`19218`, :issue:`19209`, :issue:`19205` and :issue:`9548`) * :class:`bz2.BZ2File` is now as fast or faster than the Python2 version for most cases. :class:`lzma.LZMAFile` has also been optimized. (Contributed by Serhiy Storchaka and Nadeem Vawda in :issue:`16034`.) * :func:`random.getrandbits` is 20%-40% faster for small integers (the most common use case). (Contributed by Serhiy Storchaka in :issue:`16674`). Deprecated ========== This section covers various APIs and other features that have been deprecated in Python 3.4, and will be removed in Python 3.5 or later. In most (but not all) cases, using the deprecated APIs will produce a :exc:`DeprecationWarning` when the interpreter is run with deprecation warnings enabled (for example, by using ``-Wd``). Deprecated Python Modules, Functions and Methods ------------------------------------------------ * :meth:`difflib.SequenceMatcher.isbjunk` and :meth:`difflib.SequenceMatcher.isbpopular` were removed: use ``x in sm.bjunk`` and ``x in sm.bpopular``, where *sm* is a :class:`~difflib.SequenceMatcher` object. * :func:`importlib.util.module_for_loader` is pending deprecation. Using :func:`importlib.util.module_to_load` and :meth:`importlib.abc.Loader.init_module_attrs` allows subclasses of a loader to more easily customize module loading. * The :mod:`imp` module is pending deprecation. To keep compatibility with Python 2/3 code bases, the module's removal is currently not scheduled. * The :mod:`formatter` module is pending deprecation and is slated for removal in Python 3.6. * MD5 as default digestmod for :mod:`hmac` is deprecated. Python 3.6 will require an explicit digest name or constructor as *digestmod* argument. * The internal ``Netrc`` class in the :mod:`ftplib` module has been documented as deprecated in its docstring for quite some time. It now emits a :exc:`DeprecationWarning` and will be removed completely in Python 3.5. Deprecated Functions and Types in the C API ------------------------------------------- XXX: None so far Deprecated Features ------------------- * Running :ref:`idle` with the ``-n`` flag (no subprocess) is deprecated. However, the feature will not be removed until :issue:`18823` is resolved. * The site module adding a "site-python" directory to sys.path, if it exists, is deprecated (:issue:`19375`). Removed ======= Operating Systems No Longer Supported ------------------------------------- Support for the following operating systems has been removed from the source and build tools: * OS/2 (:issue:`16135`). * Windows 2000 (changeset e52df05b496a). * VMS (:issue:`16136`). API and Feature Removals ------------------------ The following obsolete and previously deprecated APIs and features have been removed: * The unmaintained ``Misc/TextMate`` and ``Misc/vim`` directories have been removed (see the `devguide `_ for suggestions on what to use instead). * The ``SO`` makefile macro is removed (it was replaced by the ``SHLIB_SUFFIX`` and ``EXT_SUFFIX`` macros) (:issue:`16754`). * The ``PyThreadState.tick_counter`` field has been removed; its value has been meaningless since Python 3.2, when the "new GIL" was introduced. * ``PyLoader`` and ``PyPycLoader`` have been removed from :mod:`importlib`. (Contributed by Taras Lyapun in :issue:`15641`.) * The *strict* argument to :class:`~http.client.HTTPConnection` and :class:`~http.client.HTTPSConnection` has been removed. HTTP 0.9-style "Simple Responses" are no longer supported. * The deprecated :mod:`urllib.request.Request` getter and setter methods ``add_data``, ``has_data``, ``get_data``, ``get_type``, ``get_host``, ``get_selector``, ``set_proxy``, ``get_origin_req_host``, and ``is_unverifiable`` have been removed (use direct attribute access instead). Porting to Python 3.4 ===================== This section lists previously described changes and other bugfixes that may require changes to your code. Changes in the Python API ------------------------- * The ABCs defined in :mod:`importlib.abc` now either raise the appropriate exception or return a default value instead of raising :exc:`NotImplementedError` blindly. This will only affect code calling :func:`super` and falling through all the way to the ABCs. For compatibility, catch both :exc:`NotImplementedError` or the appropriate exception as needed. * The module type now initializes the :attr:`__package__` and :attr:`__loader__` attributes to ``None`` by default. To determine if these attributes were set in a backwards-compatible fashion, use e.g. ``getattr(module, '__loader__', None) is not None``. * :meth:`importlib.util.module_for_loader` now sets ``__loader__`` and ``__package__`` unconditionally to properly support reloading. If this is not desired then you will need to set these attributes manually. You can use :func:`importlib.util.module_to_load` for module management. * Import now resets relevant attributes (e.g. ``__name__``, ``__loader__``, ``__package__``, ``__file__``, ``__cached__``) unconditionally when reloading. * Frozen packages no longer set ``__path__`` to a list containing the package name but an empty list instead. Determing if a module is a package should be done using ``hasattr(module, '__path__')``. * :func:`py_compile.compile` now raises :exc:`FileExistsError` if the file path it would write to is a symlink or a non-regular file. This is to act as a warning that import will overwrite those files with a regular file regardless of what type of file path they were originally. * :meth:`importlib.abc.SourceLoader.get_source` no longer raises :exc:`ImportError` when the source code being loaded triggers a :exc:`SyntaxError` or :exc:`UnicodeDecodeError`. As :exc:`ImportError` is meant to be raised only when source code cannot be found but it should, it was felt to be over-reaching/overloading of that meaning when the source code is found but improperly structured. If you were catching ImportError before and wish to continue to ignore syntax or decoding issues, catch all three exceptions now. * :func:`functools.update_wrapper` and :func:`functools.wraps` now correctly set the ``__wrapped__`` attribute to the function being wrapper, even if that function also had its ``__wrapped__`` attribute set. This means ``__wrapped__`` attributes now correctly link a stack of decorated functions rather than every ``__wrapped__`` attribute in the chain referring to the innermost function. Introspection libraries that assumed the previous behaviour was intentional can use :func:`inspect.unwrap` to access the first function in the chain that has no ``__wrapped__`` attribute. * :class:`importlib.machinery.PathFinder` now passes on the current working directory to objects in :data:`sys.path_hooks` for the empty string. This results in :data:`sys.path_importer_cache` never containing ``''``, thus iterating through :data:`sys.path_importer_cache` based on :data:`sys.path` will not find all keys. A module's ``__file__`` when imported in the current working directory will also now have an absolute path, including when using ``-m`` with the interpreter (this does not influence when the path to a file is specified on the command-line). * The removal of the *strict* argument to :class:`~http.client.HTTPConnection` and :class:`~http.client.HTTPSConnection` changes the meaning of the remaining arguments if you are specifying them positionally rather than by keyword. If you've been paying attention to deprecation warnings your code should already be specifying any additional arguments via keywords. Changes in the C API -------------------- * :c:func:`PyErr_SetImportError` now sets :exc:`TypeError` when its **msg** argument is not set. Previously only ``NULL`` was returned with no exception set. * The result of the :c:data:`PyOS_ReadlineFunctionPointer` callback must now be a string allocated by :c:func:`PyMem_RawMalloc` or :c:func:`PyMem_RawRealloc`, or *NULL* if an error occurred, instead of a string allocated by :c:func:`PyMem_Malloc` or :c:func:`PyMem_Realloc`. * :c:func:`PyThread_set_key_value` now always set the value. In Python 3.3, the function did nothing if the key already exists (if the current value is a non-NULL pointer). * The ``f_tstate`` (thread state) field of the :c:type:`PyFrameObject` structure has been removed to fix a bug: see :issue:`14432` for the rationale.