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1****************************
2  What's New In Python 3.8
3****************************
4
5.. Rules for maintenance:
6
7   * Anyone can add text to this document.  Do not spend very much time
8   on the wording of your changes, because your text will probably
9   get rewritten to some degree.
10
11   * The maintainer will go through Misc/NEWS periodically and add
12   changes; it's therefore more important to add your changes to
13   Misc/NEWS than to this file.
14
15   * This is not a complete list of every single change; completeness
16   is the purpose of Misc/NEWS.  Some changes I consider too small
17   or esoteric to include.  If such a change is added to the text,
18   I'll just remove it.  (This is another reason you shouldn't spend
19   too much time on writing your addition.)
20
21   * If you want to draw your new text to the attention of the
22   maintainer, add 'XXX' to the beginning of the paragraph or
23   section.
24
25   * It's OK to just add a fragmentary note about a change.  For
26   example: "XXX Describe the transmogrify() function added to the
27   socket module."  The maintainer will research the change and
28   write the necessary text.
29
30   * You can comment out your additions if you like, but it's not
31   necessary (especially when a final release is some months away).
32
33   * Credit the author of a patch or bugfix.   Just the name is
34   sufficient; the e-mail address isn't necessary.
35
36   * It's helpful to add the bug/patch number as a comment:
37
38   XXX Describe the transmogrify() function added to the socket
39   module.
40   (Contributed by P.Y. Developer in :issue:`12345`.)
41
42   This saves the maintainer the effort of going through the Git log
43   when researching a change.
44
45:Editor: Raymond Hettinger
46
47This article explains the new features in Python 3.8, compared to 3.7.
48For full details, see the :ref:`changelog <changelog>`.
49
50Python 3.8 was released on October 14th, 2019.
51
52.. testsetup::
53
54   from datetime import date
55   from math import cos, radians
56   from unicodedata import normalize
57   import re
58   import math
59
60
61Summary -- Release highlights
62=============================
63
64.. This section singles out the most important changes in Python 3.8.
65   Brevity is key.
66
67
68.. PEP-sized items next.
69
70
71
72New Features
73============
74
75Assignment expressions
76----------------------
77
78There is new syntax ``:=`` that assigns values to variables as part of a larger
79expression. It is affectionately known as "the walrus operator" due to
80its resemblance to `the eyes and tusks of a walrus
81<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walrus#/media/File:Pacific_Walrus_-_Bull_(8247646168).jpg>`_.
82
83In this example, the assignment expression helps avoid calling
84:func:`len` twice::
85
86  if (n := len(a)) > 10:
87      print(f"List is too long ({n} elements, expected <= 10)")
88
89A similar benefit arises during regular expression matching where
90match objects are needed twice, once to test whether a match
91occurred and another to extract a subgroup::
92
93  discount = 0.0
94  if (mo := re.search(r'(\d+)% discount', advertisement)):
95      discount = float(mo.group(1)) / 100.0
96
97The operator is also useful with while-loops that compute
98a value to test loop termination and then need that same
99value again in the body of the loop::
100
101  # Loop over fixed length blocks
102  while (block := f.read(256)) != '':
103      process(block)
104
105Another motivating use case arises in list comprehensions where
106a value computed in a filtering condition is also needed in
107the expression body::
108
109   [clean_name.title() for name in names
110    if (clean_name := normalize('NFC', name)) in allowed_names]
111
112Try to limit use of the walrus operator to clean cases that reduce
113complexity and improve readability.
114
115See :pep:`572` for a full description.
116
117(Contributed by Emily Morehouse in :issue:`35224`.)
118
119
120Positional-only parameters
121--------------------------
122
123There is a new function parameter syntax ``/`` to indicate that some
124function parameters must be specified positionally and cannot be used as
125keyword arguments.  This is the same notation shown by ``help()`` for C
126functions annotated with Larry Hastings' `Argument Clinic
127<https://docs.python.org/3/howto/clinic.html>`_ tool.
128
129In the following example, parameters *a* and *b* are positional-only,
130while *c* or *d* can be positional or keyword, and *e* or *f* are
131required to be keywords::
132
133  def f(a, b, /, c, d, *, e, f):
134      print(a, b, c, d, e, f)
135
136The following is a valid call::
137
138  f(10, 20, 30, d=40, e=50, f=60)
139
140However, these are invalid calls::
141
142  f(10, b=20, c=30, d=40, e=50, f=60)   # b cannot be a keyword argument
143  f(10, 20, 30, 40, 50, f=60)           # e must be a keyword argument
144
145One use case for this notation is that it allows pure Python functions
146to fully emulate behaviors of existing C coded functions.  For example,
147the built-in :func:`pow` function does not accept keyword arguments::
148
149  def pow(x, y, z=None, /):
150      "Emulate the built in pow() function"
151      r = x ** y
152      return r if z is None else r%z
153
154Another use case is to preclude keyword arguments when the parameter
155name is not helpful.  For example, the builtin :func:`len` function has
156the signature ``len(obj, /)``.  This precludes awkward calls such as::
157
158  len(obj='hello')  # The "obj" keyword argument impairs readability
159
160A further benefit of marking a parameter as positional-only is that it
161allows the parameter name to be changed in the future without risk of
162breaking client code.  For example, in the :mod:`statistics` module, the
163parameter name *dist* may be changed in the future.  This was made
164possible with the following function specification::
165
166  def quantiles(dist, /, *, n=4, method='exclusive')
167      ...
168
169Since the parameters to the left of ``/`` are not exposed as possible
170keywords, the parameters names remain available for use in ``**kwargs``::
171
172  >>> def f(a, b, /, **kwargs):
173  ...     print(a, b, kwargs)
174  ...
175  >>> f(10, 20, a=1, b=2, c=3)         # a and b are used in two ways
176  10 20 {'a': 1, 'b': 2, 'c': 3}
177
178This greatly simplifies the implementation of functions and methods
179that need to accept arbitrary keyword arguments.  For example, here
180is an excerpt from code in the :mod:`collections` module::
181
182  class Counter(dict):
183
184      def __init__(self, iterable=None, /, **kwds):
185          # Note "iterable" is a possible keyword argument
186
187See :pep:`570` for a full description.
188
189(Contributed by Pablo Galindo in :issue:`36540`.)
190
191.. TODO: Pablo will sprint on docs at PyCon US 2019.
192
193
194Parallel filesystem cache for compiled bytecode files
195-----------------------------------------------------
196
197The new :envvar:`PYTHONPYCACHEPREFIX` setting (also available as
198:option:`-X` ``pycache_prefix``) configures the implicit bytecode
199cache to use a separate parallel filesystem tree, rather than
200the default ``__pycache__`` subdirectories within each source
201directory.
202
203The location of the cache is reported in :data:`sys.pycache_prefix`
204(:const:`None` indicates the default location in ``__pycache__``
205subdirectories).
206
207(Contributed by Carl Meyer in :issue:`33499`.)
208
209
210Debug build uses the same ABI as release build
211-----------------------------------------------
212
213Python now uses the same ABI whether it's built in release or debug mode. On
214Unix, when Python is built in debug mode, it is now possible to load C
215extensions built in release mode and C extensions built using the stable ABI.
216
217Release builds and debug builds are now ABI compatible: defining the
218``Py_DEBUG`` macro no longer implies the ``Py_TRACE_REFS`` macro, which
219introduces the only ABI incompatibility. The ``Py_TRACE_REFS`` macro, which
220adds the :func:`sys.getobjects` function and the :envvar:`PYTHONDUMPREFS`
221environment variable, can be set using the new ``./configure --with-trace-refs``
222build option.
223(Contributed by Victor Stinner in :issue:`36465`.)
224
225On Unix, C extensions are no longer linked to libpython except on Android
226and Cygwin.
227It is now possible
228for a statically linked Python to load a C extension built using a shared
229library Python.
230(Contributed by Victor Stinner in :issue:`21536`.)
231
232On Unix, when Python is built in debug mode, import now also looks for C
233extensions compiled in release mode and for C extensions compiled with the
234stable ABI.
235(Contributed by Victor Stinner in :issue:`36722`.)
236
237To embed Python into an application, a new ``--embed`` option must be passed to
238``python3-config --libs --embed`` to get ``-lpython3.8`` (link the application
239to libpython). To support both 3.8 and older, try ``python3-config --libs
240--embed`` first and fallback to ``python3-config --libs`` (without ``--embed``)
241if the previous command fails.
242
243Add a pkg-config ``python-3.8-embed`` module to embed Python into an
244application: ``pkg-config python-3.8-embed --libs`` includes ``-lpython3.8``.
245To support both 3.8 and older, try ``pkg-config python-X.Y-embed --libs`` first
246and fallback to ``pkg-config python-X.Y --libs`` (without ``--embed``) if the
247previous command fails (replace ``X.Y`` with the Python version).
248
249On the other hand, ``pkg-config python3.8 --libs`` no longer contains
250``-lpython3.8``. C extensions must not be linked to libpython (except on
251Android and Cygwin, whose cases are handled by the script);
252this change is backward incompatible on purpose.
253(Contributed by Victor Stinner in :issue:`36721`.)
254
255
256f-strings support ``=`` for self-documenting expressions and debugging
257----------------------------------------------------------------------
258
259Added an ``=`` specifier to :term:`f-string`\s. An f-string such as
260``f'{expr=}'`` will expand to the text of the expression, an equal sign,
261then the representation of the evaluated expression.  For example:
262
263  >>> user = 'eric_idle'
264  >>> member_since = date(1975, 7, 31)
265  >>> f'{user=} {member_since=}'
266  "user='eric_idle' member_since=datetime.date(1975, 7, 31)"
267
268The usual :ref:`f-string format specifiers <f-strings>` allow more
269control over how the result of the expression is displayed::
270
271  >>> delta = date.today() - member_since
272  >>> f'{user=!s}  {delta.days=:,d}'
273  'user=eric_idle  delta.days=16,075'
274
275The ``=`` specifier will display the whole expression so that
276calculations can be shown::
277
278  >>> print(f'{theta=}  {cos(radians(theta))=:.3f}')
279  theta=30  cos(radians(theta))=0.866
280
281(Contributed by Eric V. Smith and Larry Hastings in :issue:`36817`.)
282
283
284PEP 578: Python Runtime Audit Hooks
285-----------------------------------
286
287The PEP adds an Audit Hook and Verified Open Hook. Both are available from
288Python and native code, allowing applications and frameworks written in pure
289Python code to take advantage of extra notifications, while also allowing
290embedders or system administrators to deploy builds of Python where auditing is
291always enabled.
292
293See :pep:`578` for full details.
294
295
296PEP 587: Python Initialization Configuration
297--------------------------------------------
298
299The :pep:`587` adds a new C API to configure the Python Initialization
300providing finer control on the whole configuration and better error reporting.
301
302New structures:
303
304* :c:type:`PyConfig`
305* :c:type:`PyPreConfig`
306* :c:type:`PyStatus`
307* :c:type:`PyWideStringList`
308
309New functions:
310
311* :c:func:`PyConfig_Clear`
312* :c:func:`PyConfig_InitIsolatedConfig`
313* :c:func:`PyConfig_InitPythonConfig`
314* :c:func:`PyConfig_Read`
315* :c:func:`PyConfig_SetArgv`
316* :c:func:`PyConfig_SetBytesArgv`
317* :c:func:`PyConfig_SetBytesString`
318* :c:func:`PyConfig_SetString`
319* :c:func:`PyPreConfig_InitIsolatedConfig`
320* :c:func:`PyPreConfig_InitPythonConfig`
321* :c:func:`PyStatus_Error`
322* :c:func:`PyStatus_Exception`
323* :c:func:`PyStatus_Exit`
324* :c:func:`PyStatus_IsError`
325* :c:func:`PyStatus_IsExit`
326* :c:func:`PyStatus_NoMemory`
327* :c:func:`PyStatus_Ok`
328* :c:func:`PyWideStringList_Append`
329* :c:func:`PyWideStringList_Insert`
330* :c:func:`Py_BytesMain`
331* :c:func:`Py_ExitStatusException`
332* :c:func:`Py_InitializeFromConfig`
333* :c:func:`Py_PreInitialize`
334* :c:func:`Py_PreInitializeFromArgs`
335* :c:func:`Py_PreInitializeFromBytesArgs`
336* :c:func:`Py_RunMain`
337
338This PEP also adds ``_PyRuntimeState.preconfig`` (:c:type:`PyPreConfig` type)
339and ``PyInterpreterState.config`` (:c:type:`PyConfig` type) fields to these
340internal structures. ``PyInterpreterState.config`` becomes the new
341reference configuration, replacing global configuration variables and
342other private variables.
343
344See :ref:`Python Initialization Configuration <init-config>` for the
345documentation.
346
347See :pep:`587` for a full description.
348
349(Contributed by Victor Stinner in :issue:`36763`.)
350
351
352Vectorcall: a fast calling protocol for CPython
353-----------------------------------------------
354
355The "vectorcall" protocol is added to the Python/C API.
356It is meant to formalize existing optimizations which were already done
357for various classes.
358Any extension type implementing a callable can use this protocol.
359
360This is currently provisional.
361The aim is to make it fully public in Python 3.9.
362
363See :pep:`590` for a full description.
364
365(Contributed by Jeroen Demeyer and Mark Shannon in :issue:`36974`.)
366
367
368Pickle protocol 5 with out-of-band data buffers
369-----------------------------------------------
370
371When :mod:`pickle` is used to transfer large data between Python processes
372in order to take advantage of multi-core or multi-machine processing,
373it is important to optimize the transfer by reducing memory copies, and
374possibly by applying custom techniques such as data-dependent compression.
375
376The :mod:`pickle` protocol 5 introduces support for out-of-band buffers
377where :pep:`3118`-compatible data can be transmitted separately from the
378main pickle stream, at the discretion of the communication layer.
379
380See :pep:`574` for a full description.
381
382(Contributed by Antoine Pitrou in :issue:`36785`.)
383
384
385Other Language Changes
386======================
387
388* A :keyword:`continue` statement was illegal in the :keyword:`finally` clause
389  due to a problem with the implementation.  In Python 3.8 this restriction
390  was lifted.
391  (Contributed by Serhiy Storchaka in :issue:`32489`.)
392
393* The :class:`bool`, :class:`int`, and :class:`fractions.Fraction` types
394  now have an :meth:`~int.as_integer_ratio` method like that found in
395  :class:`float` and :class:`decimal.Decimal`.  This minor API extension
396  makes it possible to write ``numerator, denominator =
397  x.as_integer_ratio()`` and have it work across multiple numeric types.
398  (Contributed by Lisa Roach in :issue:`33073` and Raymond Hettinger in
399  :issue:`37819`.)
400
401* Constructors of :class:`int`, :class:`float` and :class:`complex` will now
402  use the :meth:`~object.__index__` special method, if available and the
403  corresponding method :meth:`~object.__int__`, :meth:`~object.__float__`
404  or :meth:`~object.__complex__` is not available.
405  (Contributed by Serhiy Storchaka in :issue:`20092`.)
406
407* Added support of ``\N{name}`` escapes in :mod:`regular expressions <re>`::
408
409    >>> notice = 'Copyright © 2019'
410    >>> copyright_year_pattern = re.compile(r'\N{copyright sign}\s*(\d{4})')
411    >>> int(copyright_year_pattern.search(notice).group(1))
412    2019
413
414  (Contributed by Jonathan Eunice and Serhiy Storchaka in :issue:`30688`.)
415
416* Dict and dictviews are now iterable in reversed insertion order using
417  :func:`reversed`. (Contributed by Rémi Lapeyre in :issue:`33462`.)
418
419* The syntax allowed for keyword names in function calls was further
420  restricted. In particular, ``f((keyword)=arg)`` is no longer allowed. It was
421  never intended to permit more than a bare name on the left-hand side of a
422  keyword argument assignment term.
423  (Contributed by Benjamin Peterson in :issue:`34641`.)
424
425* Generalized iterable unpacking in :keyword:`yield` and
426  :keyword:`return` statements no longer requires enclosing parentheses.
427  This brings the *yield* and *return* syntax into better agreement with
428  normal assignment syntax::
429
430    >>> def parse(family):
431            lastname, *members = family.split()
432            return lastname.upper(), *members
433
434    >>> parse('simpsons homer marge bart lisa sally')
435    ('SIMPSONS', 'homer', 'marge', 'bart', 'lisa', 'sally')
436
437  (Contributed by David Cuthbert and Jordan Chapman in :issue:`32117`.)
438
439* When a comma is missed in code such as ``[(10, 20) (30, 40)]``, the
440  compiler displays a :exc:`SyntaxWarning` with a helpful suggestion.
441  This improves on just having a :exc:`TypeError` indicating that the
442  first tuple was not callable.  (Contributed by Serhiy Storchaka in
443  :issue:`15248`.)
444
445* Arithmetic operations between subclasses of :class:`datetime.date` or
446  :class:`datetime.datetime` and :class:`datetime.timedelta` objects now return
447  an instance of the subclass, rather than the base class. This also affects
448  the return type of operations whose implementation (directly or indirectly)
449  uses :class:`datetime.timedelta` arithmetic, such as
450  :meth:`~datetime.datetime.astimezone`.
451  (Contributed by Paul Ganssle in :issue:`32417`.)
452
453* When the Python interpreter is interrupted by Ctrl-C (SIGINT) and the
454  resulting :exc:`KeyboardInterrupt` exception is not caught, the Python process
455  now exits via a SIGINT signal or with the correct exit code such that the
456  calling process can detect that it died due to a Ctrl-C.  Shells on POSIX
457  and Windows use this to properly terminate scripts in interactive sessions.
458  (Contributed by Google via Gregory P. Smith in :issue:`1054041`.)
459
460* Some advanced styles of programming require updating the
461  :class:`types.CodeType` object for an existing function.  Since code
462  objects are immutable, a new code object needs to be created, one
463  that is modeled on the existing code object.  With 19 parameters,
464  this was somewhat tedious.  Now, the new ``replace()`` method makes
465  it possible to create a clone with a few altered parameters.
466
467  Here's an example that alters the :func:`statistics.mean` function to
468  prevent the *data* parameter from being used as a keyword argument::
469
470    >>> from statistics import mean
471    >>> mean(data=[10, 20, 90])
472    40
473    >>> mean.__code__ = mean.__code__.replace(co_posonlyargcount=1)
474    >>> mean(data=[10, 20, 90])
475    Traceback (most recent call last):
476      ...
477    TypeError: mean() got some positional-only arguments passed as keyword arguments: 'data'
478
479  (Contributed by Victor Stinner in :issue:`37032`.)
480
481* For integers, the three-argument form of the :func:`pow` function now
482  permits the exponent to be negative in the case where the base is
483  relatively prime to the modulus. It then computes a modular inverse to
484  the base when the exponent is ``-1``, and a suitable power of that
485  inverse for other negative exponents.  For example, to compute the
486  `modular multiplicative inverse
487  <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modular_multiplicative_inverse>`_ of 38
488  modulo 137, write::
489
490    >>> pow(38, -1, 137)
491    119
492    >>> 119 * 38 % 137
493    1
494
495  Modular inverses arise in the solution of `linear Diophantine
496  equations <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diophantine_equation>`_.
497  For example, to find integer solutions for ``4258�� + 147�� = 369``,
498  first rewrite as ``4258�� ≡ 369 (mod 147)`` then solve:
499
500    >>> x = 369 * pow(4258, -1, 147) % 147
501    >>> y = (4258 * x - 369) // -147
502    >>> 4258 * x + 147 * y
503    369
504
505  (Contributed by Mark Dickinson in :issue:`36027`.)
506
507* Dict comprehensions have been synced-up with dict literals so that the
508  key is computed first and the value second::
509
510    >>> # Dict comprehension
511    >>> cast = {input('role? '): input('actor? ') for i in range(2)}
512    role? King Arthur
513    actor? Chapman
514    role? Black Knight
515    actor? Cleese
516
517    >>> # Dict literal
518    >>> cast = {input('role? '): input('actor? ')}
519    role? Sir Robin
520    actor? Eric Idle
521
522  The guaranteed execution order is helpful with assignment expressions
523  because variables assigned in the key expression will be available in
524  the value expression::
525
526    >>> names = ['Martin von Löwis', 'Łukasz Langa', 'Walter Dörwald']
527    >>> {(n := normalize('NFC', name)).casefold() : n for name in names}
528    {'martin von löwis': 'Martin von Löwis',
529     'łukasz langa': 'Łukasz Langa',
530     'walter dörwald': 'Walter Dörwald'}
531
532  (Contributed by Jörn Heissler in :issue:`35224`.)
533
534* The :meth:`object.__reduce__` method can now return a tuple from two to
535  six elements long. Formerly, five was the limit.  The new, optional sixth
536  element is a callable with a ``(obj, state)`` signature.  This allows the
537  direct control over the state-updating behavior of a specific object.  If
538  not *None*, this callable will have priority over the object's
539  :meth:`~__setstate__` method.
540  (Contributed by Pierre Glaser and Olivier Grisel in :issue:`35900`.)
541
542New Modules
543===========
544
545* The new :mod:`importlib.metadata` module provides (provisional) support for
546  reading metadata from third-party packages.  For example, it can extract an
547  installed package's version number, list of entry points, and more::
548
549    >>> # Note following example requires that the popular "requests"
550    >>> # package has been installed.
551    >>>
552    >>> from importlib.metadata import version, requires, files
553    >>> version('requests')
554    '2.22.0'
555    >>> list(requires('requests'))
556    ['chardet (<3.1.0,>=3.0.2)']
557    >>> list(files('requests'))[:5]
558    [PackagePath('requests-2.22.0.dist-info/INSTALLER'),
559     PackagePath('requests-2.22.0.dist-info/LICENSE'),
560     PackagePath('requests-2.22.0.dist-info/METADATA'),
561     PackagePath('requests-2.22.0.dist-info/RECORD'),
562     PackagePath('requests-2.22.0.dist-info/WHEEL')]
563
564  (Contributed by Barry Warsaw and Jason R. Coombs in :issue:`34632`.)
565
566
567Improved Modules
568================
569
570ast
571---
572
573AST nodes now have ``end_lineno`` and ``end_col_offset`` attributes,
574which give the precise location of the end of the node.  (This only
575applies to nodes that have ``lineno`` and ``col_offset`` attributes.)
576
577New function :func:`ast.get_source_segment` returns the source code
578for a specific AST node.
579
580(Contributed by Ivan Levkivskyi in :issue:`33416`.)
581
582The :func:`ast.parse` function has some new flags:
583
584* ``type_comments=True`` causes it to return the text of :pep:`484` and
585  :pep:`526` type comments associated with certain AST nodes;
586
587* ``mode='func_type'`` can be used to parse :pep:`484` "signature type
588  comments" (returned for function definition AST nodes);
589
590* ``feature_version=(3, N)`` allows specifying an earlier Python 3
591  version.  For example, ``feature_version=(3, 4)`` will treat
592  :keyword:`async` and :keyword:`await` as non-reserved words.
593
594(Contributed by Guido van Rossum in :issue:`35766`.)
595
596
597asyncio
598-------
599
600:func:`asyncio.run` has graduated from the provisional to stable API. This
601function can be used to execute a :term:`coroutine` and return the result while
602automatically managing the event loop. For example::
603
604    import asyncio
605
606    async def main():
607        await asyncio.sleep(0)
608        return 42
609
610    asyncio.run(main())
611
612This is *roughly* equivalent to::
613
614    import asyncio
615
616    async def main():
617        await asyncio.sleep(0)
618        return 42
619
620    loop = asyncio.new_event_loop()
621    asyncio.set_event_loop(loop)
622    try:
623        loop.run_until_complete(main())
624    finally:
625        asyncio.set_event_loop(None)
626        loop.close()
627
628
629The actual implementation is significantly more complex. Thus,
630:func:`asyncio.run` should be the preferred way of running asyncio programs.
631
632(Contributed by Yury Selivanov in :issue:`32314`.)
633
634Running ``python -m asyncio`` launches a natively async REPL.  This allows rapid
635experimentation with code that has a top-level :keyword:`await`.  There is no
636longer a need to directly call ``asyncio.run()`` which would spawn a new event
637loop on every invocation:
638
639.. code-block:: none
640
641    $ python -m asyncio
642    asyncio REPL 3.8.0
643    Use "await" directly instead of "asyncio.run()".
644    Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
645    >>> import asyncio
646    >>> await asyncio.sleep(10, result='hello')
647    hello
648
649(Contributed by Yury Selivanov in :issue:`37028`.)
650
651The exception :class:`asyncio.CancelledError` now inherits from
652:class:`BaseException` rather than :class:`Exception`.
653(Contributed by Yury Selivanov in :issue:`32528`.)
654
655On Windows, the default event loop is now :class:`~asyncio.ProactorEventLoop`.
656(Contributed by Victor Stinner in :issue:`34687`.)
657
658:class:`~asyncio.ProactorEventLoop` now also supports UDP.
659(Contributed by Adam Meily and Andrew Svetlov in :issue:`29883`.)
660
661:class:`~asyncio.ProactorEventLoop` can now be interrupted by
662:exc:`KeyboardInterrupt` ("CTRL+C").
663(Contributed by Vladimir Matveev in :issue:`23057`.)
664
665Added :meth:`asyncio.Task.get_coro` for getting the wrapped coroutine
666within an :class:`asyncio.Task`.
667(Contributed by Alex Grönholm in :issue:`36999`.)
668
669Asyncio tasks can now be named, either by passing the ``name`` keyword
670argument to :func:`asyncio.create_task` or
671the :meth:`~asyncio.loop.create_task` event loop method, or by
672calling the :meth:`~asyncio.Task.set_name` method on the task object. The
673task name is visible in the ``repr()`` output of :class:`asyncio.Task` and
674can also be retrieved using the :meth:`~asyncio.Task.get_name` method.
675(Contributed by Alex Grönholm in :issue:`34270`.)
676
677Added support for
678`Happy Eyeballs <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Happy_Eyeballs>`_ to
679:func:`asyncio.loop.create_connection`. To specify the behavior, two new
680parameters have been added: *happy_eyeballs_delay* and *interleave*. The Happy
681Eyeballs algorithm improves responsiveness in applications that support IPv4
682and IPv6 by attempting to simultaneously connect using both.
683(Contributed by twisteroid ambassador in :issue:`33530`.)
684
685
686builtins
687--------
688
689The :func:`compile` built-in has been improved to accept the
690``ast.PyCF_ALLOW_TOP_LEVEL_AWAIT`` flag. With this new flag passed,
691:func:`compile` will allow top-level ``await``, ``async for`` and ``async with``
692constructs that are usually considered invalid syntax. Asynchronous code object
693marked with the ``CO_COROUTINE`` flag may then be returned.
694(Contributed by Matthias Bussonnier in :issue:`34616`)
695
696
697collections
698-----------
699
700The :meth:`~collections.somenamedtuple._asdict` method for
701:func:`collections.namedtuple` now returns a :class:`dict` instead of a
702:class:`collections.OrderedDict`. This works because regular dicts have
703guaranteed ordering since Python 3.7. If the extra features of
704:class:`OrderedDict` are required, the suggested remediation is to cast the
705result to the desired type: ``OrderedDict(nt._asdict())``.
706(Contributed by Raymond Hettinger in :issue:`35864`.)
707
708
709cProfile
710--------
711
712The :class:`cProfile.Profile <profile.Profile>` class can now be used as a context manager.
713Profile a block of code by running::
714
715      import cProfile
716
717      with cProfile.Profile() as profiler:
718            # code to be profiled
719            ...
720
721(Contributed by Scott Sanderson in :issue:`29235`.)
722
723
724csv
725---
726
727The :class:`csv.DictReader` now returns instances of :class:`dict` instead of
728a :class:`collections.OrderedDict`.  The tool is now faster and uses less
729memory while still preserving the field order.
730(Contributed by Michael Seek in :issue:`34003`.)
731
732
733curses
734-------
735
736Added a new variable holding structured version information for the
737underlying ncurses library: :data:`~curses.ncurses_version`.
738(Contributed by Serhiy Storchaka in :issue:`31680`.)
739
740
741ctypes
742------
743
744On Windows, :class:`~ctypes.CDLL` and subclasses now accept a *winmode* parameter
745to specify flags for the underlying ``LoadLibraryEx`` call. The default flags are
746set to only load DLL dependencies from trusted locations, including the path
747where the DLL is stored (if a full or partial path is used to load the initial
748DLL) and paths added by :func:`~os.add_dll_directory`.
749(Contributed by Steve Dower in :issue:`36085`.)
750
751
752datetime
753--------
754
755Added new alternate constructors :meth:`datetime.date.fromisocalendar` and
756:meth:`datetime.datetime.fromisocalendar`, which construct :class:`date` and
757:class:`datetime` objects respectively from ISO year, week number, and weekday;
758these are the inverse of each class's ``isocalendar`` method.
759(Contributed by Paul Ganssle in :issue:`36004`.)
760
761
762functools
763---------
764
765:func:`functools.lru_cache` can now be used as a straight decorator rather
766than as a function returning a decorator.  So both of these are now supported::
767
768    @lru_cache
769    def f(x):
770        ...
771
772    @lru_cache(maxsize=256)
773    def f(x):
774        ...
775
776(Contributed by Raymond Hettinger in :issue:`36772`.)
777
778Added a new :func:`functools.cached_property` decorator, for computed properties
779cached for the life of the instance. ::
780
781   import functools
782   import statistics
783
784   class Dataset:
785      def __init__(self, sequence_of_numbers):
786         self.data = sequence_of_numbers
787
788      @functools.cached_property
789      def variance(self):
790         return statistics.variance(self.data)
791
792(Contributed by Carl Meyer in :issue:`21145`)
793
794
795Added a new :func:`functools.singledispatchmethod` decorator that converts
796methods into :term:`generic functions <generic function>` using
797:term:`single dispatch`::
798
799    from functools import singledispatchmethod
800    from contextlib import suppress
801
802    class TaskManager:
803
804        def __init__(self, tasks):
805            self.tasks = list(tasks)
806
807        @singledispatchmethod
808        def discard(self, value):
809            with suppress(ValueError):
810                self.tasks.remove(value)
811
812        @discard.register(list)
813        def _(self, tasks):
814            targets = set(tasks)
815            self.tasks = [x for x in self.tasks if x not in targets]
816
817(Contributed by Ethan Smith in :issue:`32380`)
818
819gc
820--
821
822:func:`~gc.get_objects` can now receive an optional *generation* parameter
823indicating a generation to get objects from.
824(Contributed by Pablo Galindo in :issue:`36016`.)
825
826
827gettext
828-------
829
830Added :func:`~gettext.pgettext` and its variants.
831(Contributed by Franz Glasner, Éric Araujo, and Cheryl Sabella in :issue:`2504`.)
832
833
834gzip
835----
836
837Added the *mtime* parameter to :func:`gzip.compress` for reproducible output.
838(Contributed by Guo Ci Teo in :issue:`34898`.)
839
840A :exc:`~gzip.BadGzipFile` exception is now raised instead of :exc:`OSError`
841for certain types of invalid or corrupt gzip files.
842(Contributed by Filip Gruszczyński, Michele Orrù, and Zackery Spytz in
843:issue:`6584`.)
844
845
846IDLE and idlelib
847----------------
848
849Output over N lines (50 by default) is squeezed down to a button.
850N can be changed in the PyShell section of the General page of the
851Settings dialog.  Fewer, but possibly extra long, lines can be squeezed by
852right clicking on the output.  Squeezed output can be expanded in place
853by double-clicking the button or into the clipboard or a separate window
854by right-clicking the button.  (Contributed by Tal Einat in :issue:`1529353`.)
855
856Add "Run Customized" to the Run menu to run a module with customized
857settings. Any command line arguments entered are added to sys.argv.
858They also re-appear in the box for the next customized run.  One can also
859suppress the normal Shell main module restart.  (Contributed by Cheryl
860Sabella, Terry Jan Reedy, and others in :issue:`5680` and :issue:`37627`.)
861
862Added optional line numbers for IDLE editor windows. Windows
863open without line numbers unless set otherwise in the General
864tab of the configuration dialog.  Line numbers for an existing
865window are shown and hidden in the Options menu.
866(Contributed by Tal Einat and Saimadhav Heblikar in :issue:`17535`.)
867
868OS native encoding is now used for converting between Python strings and Tcl
869objects. This allows IDLE to work with emoji and other non-BMP characters.
870These characters can be displayed or copied and pasted to or from the
871clipboard.  Converting strings from Tcl to Python and back now never fails.
872(Many people worked on this for eight years but the problem was finally
873solved by Serhiy Storchaka in :issue:`13153`.)
874
875The changes above have been backported to 3.7 maintenance releases.
876
877
878inspect
879-------
880
881The :func:`inspect.getdoc` function can now find docstrings for ``__slots__``
882if that attribute is a :class:`dict` where the values are docstrings.
883This provides documentation options similar to what we already have
884for :func:`property`, :func:`classmethod`, and :func:`staticmethod`::
885
886  class AudioClip:
887      __slots__ = {'bit_rate': 'expressed in kilohertz to one decimal place',
888                   'duration': 'in seconds, rounded up to an integer'}
889      def __init__(self, bit_rate, duration):
890          self.bit_rate = round(bit_rate / 1000.0, 1)
891          self.duration = ceil(duration)
892
893(Contributed by Raymond Hettinger in :issue:`36326`.)
894
895
896io
897--
898
899In development mode (:option:`-X` ``env``) and in debug build, the
900:class:`io.IOBase` finalizer now logs the exception if the ``close()`` method
901fails. The exception is ignored silently by default in release build.
902(Contributed by Victor Stinner in :issue:`18748`.)
903
904
905itertools
906---------
907
908The :func:`itertools.accumulate` function added an option *initial* keyword
909argument to specify an initial value::
910
911    >>> from itertools import accumulate
912    >>> list(accumulate([10, 5, 30, 15], initial=1000))
913    [1000, 1010, 1015, 1045, 1060]
914
915(Contributed by Lisa Roach in :issue:`34659`.)
916
917
918json.tool
919---------
920
921Add option ``--json-lines`` to parse every input line as a separate JSON object.
922(Contributed by Weipeng Hong in :issue:`31553`.)
923
924
925logging
926-------
927
928Added a *force* keyword argument to :func:`logging.basicConfig()`
929When set to true, any existing handlers attached
930to the root logger are removed and closed before carrying out the
931configuration specified by the other arguments.
932
933This solves a long-standing problem.  Once a logger or *basicConfig()* had
934been called, subsequent calls to *basicConfig()* were silently ignored.
935This made it difficult to update, experiment with, or teach the various
936logging configuration options using the interactive prompt or a Jupyter
937notebook.
938
939(Suggested by Raymond Hettinger, implemented by Dong-hee Na, and
940reviewed by Vinay Sajip in :issue:`33897`.)
941
942
943math
944----
945
946Added new function :func:`math.dist` for computing Euclidean distance
947between two points.  (Contributed by Raymond Hettinger in :issue:`33089`.)
948
949Expanded the :func:`math.hypot` function to handle multiple dimensions.
950Formerly, it only supported the 2-D case.
951(Contributed by Raymond Hettinger in :issue:`33089`.)
952
953Added new function, :func:`math.prod`, as analogous function to :func:`sum`
954that returns the product of a 'start' value (default: 1) times an iterable of
955numbers::
956
957    >>> prior = 0.8
958    >>> likelihoods = [0.625, 0.84, 0.30]
959    >>> math.prod(likelihoods, start=prior)
960    0.126
961
962(Contributed by Pablo Galindo in :issue:`35606`.)
963
964Added two new combinatoric functions :func:`math.perm` and :func:`math.comb`::
965
966    >>> math.perm(10, 3)    # Permutations of 10 things taken 3 at a time
967    720
968    >>> math.comb(10, 3)    # Combinations of 10 things taken 3 at a time
969    120
970
971(Contributed by Yash Aggarwal, Keller Fuchs, Serhiy Storchaka, and Raymond
972Hettinger in :issue:`37128`, :issue:`37178`, and :issue:`35431`.)
973
974Added a new function :func:`math.isqrt` for computing accurate integer square
975roots without conversion to floating point.  The new function supports
976arbitrarily large integers.  It is faster than ``floor(sqrt(n))`` but slower
977than :func:`math.sqrt`::
978
979    >>> r = 650320427
980    >>> s = r ** 2
981    >>> isqrt(s - 1)         # correct
982    650320426
983    >>> floor(sqrt(s - 1))   # incorrect
984    650320427
985
986(Contributed by Mark Dickinson in :issue:`36887`.)
987
988The function :func:`math.factorial` no longer accepts arguments that are not
989int-like. (Contributed by Pablo Galindo in :issue:`33083`.)
990
991
992mmap
993----
994
995The :class:`mmap.mmap` class now has an :meth:`~mmap.mmap.madvise` method to
996access the ``madvise()`` system call.
997(Contributed by Zackery Spytz in :issue:`32941`.)
998
999
1000multiprocessing
1001---------------
1002
1003Added new :mod:`multiprocessing.shared_memory` module.
1004(Contributed by Davin Potts in :issue:`35813`.)
1005
1006On macOS, the *spawn* start method is now used by default.
1007(Contributed by Victor Stinner in :issue:`33725`.)
1008
1009
1010os
1011--
1012
1013Added new function :func:`~os.add_dll_directory` on Windows for providing
1014additional search paths for native dependencies when importing extension
1015modules or loading DLLs using :mod:`ctypes`.
1016(Contributed by Steve Dower in :issue:`36085`.)
1017
1018A new :func:`os.memfd_create` function was added to wrap the
1019``memfd_create()`` syscall.
1020(Contributed by Zackery Spytz and Christian Heimes in :issue:`26836`.)
1021
1022On Windows, much of the manual logic for handling reparse points (including
1023symlinks and directory junctions) has been delegated to the operating system.
1024Specifically, :func:`os.stat` will now traverse anything supported by the
1025operating system, while :func:`os.lstat` will only open reparse points that
1026identify as "name surrogates" while others are opened as for :func:`os.stat`.
1027In all cases, :attr:`stat_result.st_mode` will only have ``S_IFLNK`` set for
1028symbolic links and not other kinds of reparse points. To identify other kinds
1029of reparse point, check the new :attr:`stat_result.st_reparse_tag` attribute.
1030
1031On Windows, :func:`os.readlink` is now able to read directory junctions. Note
1032that :func:`~os.path.islink` will return ``False`` for directory junctions,
1033and so code that checks ``islink`` first will continue to treat junctions as
1034directories, while code that handles errors from :func:`os.readlink` may now
1035treat junctions as links.
1036
1037(Contributed by Steve Dower in :issue:`37834`.)
1038
1039
1040os.path
1041-------
1042
1043:mod:`os.path` functions that return a boolean result like
1044:func:`~os.path.exists`, :func:`~os.path.lexists`, :func:`~os.path.isdir`,
1045:func:`~os.path.isfile`, :func:`~os.path.islink`, and :func:`~os.path.ismount`
1046now return ``False`` instead of raising :exc:`ValueError` or its subclasses
1047:exc:`UnicodeEncodeError` and :exc:`UnicodeDecodeError` for paths that contain
1048characters or bytes unrepresentable at the OS level.
1049(Contributed by Serhiy Storchaka in :issue:`33721`.)
1050
1051:func:`~os.path.expanduser` on Windows now prefers the :envvar:`USERPROFILE`
1052environment variable and does not use :envvar:`HOME`, which is not normally set
1053for regular user accounts.
1054(Contributed by Anthony Sottile in :issue:`36264`.)
1055
1056:func:`~os.path.isdir` on Windows no longer returns ``True`` for a link to a
1057non-existent directory.
1058
1059:func:`~os.path.realpath` on Windows now resolves reparse points, including
1060symlinks and directory junctions.
1061
1062(Contributed by Steve Dower in :issue:`37834`.)
1063
1064
1065pathlib
1066-------
1067
1068:mod:`pathlib.Path` methods that return a boolean result like
1069:meth:`~pathlib.Path.exists()`, :meth:`~pathlib.Path.is_dir()`,
1070:meth:`~pathlib.Path.is_file()`, :meth:`~pathlib.Path.is_mount()`,
1071:meth:`~pathlib.Path.is_symlink()`, :meth:`~pathlib.Path.is_block_device()`,
1072:meth:`~pathlib.Path.is_char_device()`, :meth:`~pathlib.Path.is_fifo()`,
1073:meth:`~pathlib.Path.is_socket()` now return ``False`` instead of raising
1074:exc:`ValueError` or its subclass :exc:`UnicodeEncodeError` for paths that
1075contain characters unrepresentable at the OS level.
1076(Contributed by Serhiy Storchaka in :issue:`33721`.)
1077
1078Added :meth:`pathlib.Path.link_to()` which creates a hard link pointing
1079to a path.
1080(Contributed by Joannah Nanjekye in :issue:`26978`)
1081
1082
1083pickle
1084------
1085
1086:mod:`pickle` extensions subclassing the C-optimized :class:`~pickle.Pickler`
1087can now override the pickling logic of functions and classes by defining the
1088special :meth:`~pickle.Pickler.reducer_override` method.
1089(Contributed by Pierre Glaser and Olivier Grisel in :issue:`35900`.)
1090
1091
1092plistlib
1093--------
1094
1095Added new :class:`plistlib.UID` and enabled support for reading and writing
1096NSKeyedArchiver-encoded binary plists.
1097(Contributed by Jon Janzen in :issue:`26707`.)
1098
1099
1100pprint
1101------
1102
1103The :mod:`pprint` module added a *sort_dicts* parameter to several functions.
1104By default, those functions continue to sort dictionaries before rendering or
1105printing.  However, if *sort_dicts* is set to false, the dictionaries retain
1106the order that keys were inserted.  This can be useful for comparison to JSON
1107inputs during debugging.
1108
1109In addition, there is a convenience new function, :func:`pprint.pp` that is
1110like :func:`pprint.pprint` but with *sort_dicts* defaulting to ``False``::
1111
1112    >>> from pprint import pprint, pp
1113    >>> d = dict(source='input.txt', operation='filter', destination='output.txt')
1114    >>> pp(d, width=40)                  # Original order
1115    {'source': 'input.txt',
1116     'operation': 'filter',
1117     'destination': 'output.txt'}
1118    >>> pprint(d, width=40)              # Keys sorted alphabetically
1119    {'destination': 'output.txt',
1120     'operation': 'filter',
1121     'source': 'input.txt'}
1122
1123(Contributed by Rémi Lapeyre in :issue:`30670`.)
1124
1125
1126py_compile
1127----------
1128
1129:func:`py_compile.compile` now supports silent mode.
1130(Contributed by Joannah Nanjekye in :issue:`22640`.)
1131
1132
1133shlex
1134-----
1135
1136The new :func:`shlex.join` function acts as the inverse of :func:`shlex.split`.
1137(Contributed by Bo Bayles in :issue:`32102`.)
1138
1139
1140shutil
1141------
1142
1143:func:`shutil.copytree` now accepts a new ``dirs_exist_ok`` keyword argument.
1144(Contributed by Josh Bronson in :issue:`20849`.)
1145
1146:func:`shutil.make_archive` now defaults to the modern pax (POSIX.1-2001)
1147format for new archives to improve portability and standards conformance,
1148inherited from the corresponding change to the :mod:`tarfile` module.
1149(Contributed by C.A.M. Gerlach in :issue:`30661`.)
1150
1151:func:`shutil.rmtree` on Windows now removes directory junctions without
1152recursively removing their contents first.
1153(Contributed by Steve Dower in :issue:`37834`.)
1154
1155
1156socket
1157------
1158
1159Added :meth:`~socket.create_server()` and :meth:`~socket.has_dualstack_ipv6()`
1160convenience functions to automate the necessary tasks usually involved when
1161creating a server socket, including accepting both IPv4 and IPv6 connections
1162on the same socket.  (Contributed by Giampaolo Rodolà in :issue:`17561`.)
1163
1164The :func:`socket.if_nameindex()`, :func:`socket.if_nametoindex()`, and
1165:func:`socket.if_indextoname()` functions have been implemented on Windows.
1166(Contributed by Zackery Spytz in :issue:`37007`.)
1167
1168
1169ssl
1170---
1171
1172Added :attr:`~ssl.SSLContext.post_handshake_auth` to enable and
1173:meth:`~ssl.SSLSocket.verify_client_post_handshake` to initiate TLS 1.3
1174post-handshake authentication.
1175(Contributed by Christian Heimes in :issue:`34670`.)
1176
1177
1178statistics
1179----------
1180
1181Added :func:`statistics.fmean` as a faster, floating point variant of
1182:func:`statistics.mean()`.  (Contributed by Raymond Hettinger and
1183Steven D'Aprano in :issue:`35904`.)
1184
1185Added :func:`statistics.geometric_mean()`
1186(Contributed by Raymond Hettinger in :issue:`27181`.)
1187
1188Added :func:`statistics.multimode` that returns a list of the most
1189common values. (Contributed by Raymond Hettinger in :issue:`35892`.)
1190
1191Added :func:`statistics.quantiles` that divides data or a distribution
1192in to equiprobable intervals (e.g. quartiles, deciles, or percentiles).
1193(Contributed by Raymond Hettinger in :issue:`36546`.)
1194
1195Added :class:`statistics.NormalDist`, a tool for creating
1196and manipulating normal distributions of a random variable.
1197(Contributed by Raymond Hettinger in :issue:`36018`.)
1198
1199::
1200
1201    >>> temperature_feb = NormalDist.from_samples([4, 12, -3, 2, 7, 14])
1202    >>> temperature_feb.mean
1203    6.0
1204    >>> temperature_feb.stdev
1205    6.356099432828281
1206
1207    >>> temperature_feb.cdf(3)            # Chance of being under 3 degrees
1208    0.3184678262814532
1209    >>> # Relative chance of being 7 degrees versus 10 degrees
1210    >>> temperature_feb.pdf(7) / temperature_feb.pdf(10)
1211    1.2039930378537762
1212
1213    >>> el_niño = NormalDist(4, 2.5)
1214    >>> temperature_feb += el_niño        # Add in a climate effect
1215    >>> temperature_feb
1216    NormalDist(mu=10.0, sigma=6.830080526611674)
1217
1218    >>> temperature_feb * (9/5) + 32      # Convert to Fahrenheit
1219    NormalDist(mu=50.0, sigma=12.294144947901014)
1220    >>> temperature_feb.samples(3)        # Generate random samples
1221    [7.672102882379219, 12.000027119750287, 4.647488369766392]
1222
1223
1224sys
1225---
1226
1227Add new :func:`sys.unraisablehook` function which can be overridden to control
1228how "unraisable exceptions" are handled. It is called when an exception has
1229occurred but there is no way for Python to handle it. For example, when a
1230destructor raises an exception or during garbage collection
1231(:func:`gc.collect`).
1232(Contributed by Victor Stinner in :issue:`36829`.)
1233
1234
1235tarfile
1236-------
1237
1238The :mod:`tarfile` module now defaults to the modern pax (POSIX.1-2001)
1239format for new archives, instead of the previous GNU-specific one.
1240This improves cross-platform portability with a consistent encoding (UTF-8)
1241in a standardized and extensible format, and offers several other benefits.
1242(Contributed by C.A.M. Gerlach in :issue:`36268`.)
1243
1244
1245threading
1246---------
1247
1248Add a new :func:`threading.excepthook` function which handles uncaught
1249:meth:`threading.Thread.run` exception. It can be overridden to control how
1250uncaught :meth:`threading.Thread.run` exceptions are handled.
1251(Contributed by Victor Stinner in :issue:`1230540`.)
1252
1253Add a new :func:`threading.get_native_id` function and
1254a :data:`~threading.Thread.native_id`
1255attribute to the :class:`threading.Thread` class. These return the native
1256integral Thread ID of the current thread assigned by the kernel.
1257This feature is only available on certain platforms, see
1258:func:`get_native_id <threading.get_native_id>` for more information.
1259(Contributed by Jake Tesler in :issue:`36084`.)
1260
1261
1262tokenize
1263--------
1264
1265The :mod:`tokenize` module now implicitly emits a ``NEWLINE`` token when
1266provided with input that does not have a trailing new line.  This behavior
1267now matches what the C tokenizer does internally.
1268(Contributed by Ammar Askar in :issue:`33899`.)
1269
1270
1271tkinter
1272-------
1273
1274Added methods :meth:`~tkinter.Spinbox.selection_from`,
1275:meth:`~tkinter.Spinbox.selection_present`,
1276:meth:`~tkinter.Spinbox.selection_range` and
1277:meth:`~tkinter.Spinbox.selection_to`
1278in the :class:`tkinter.Spinbox` class.
1279(Contributed by Juliette Monsel in :issue:`34829`.)
1280
1281Added method :meth:`~tkinter.Canvas.moveto`
1282in the :class:`tkinter.Canvas` class.
1283(Contributed by Juliette Monsel in :issue:`23831`.)
1284
1285The :class:`tkinter.PhotoImage` class now has
1286:meth:`~tkinter.PhotoImage.transparency_get` and
1287:meth:`~tkinter.PhotoImage.transparency_set` methods.  (Contributed by
1288Zackery Spytz in :issue:`25451`.)
1289
1290
1291time
1292----
1293
1294Added new clock :data:`~time.CLOCK_UPTIME_RAW` for macOS 10.12.
1295(Contributed by Joannah Nanjekye in :issue:`35702`.)
1296
1297
1298typing
1299------
1300
1301The :mod:`typing` module incorporates several new features:
1302
1303* A dictionary type with per-key types.  See :pep:`589` and
1304  :class:`typing.TypedDict`.
1305  TypedDict uses only string keys.  By default, every key is required
1306  to be present. Specify "total=False" to allow keys to be optional::
1307
1308      class Location(TypedDict, total=False):
1309          lat_long: tuple
1310          grid_square: str
1311          xy_coordinate: tuple
1312
1313* Literal types.  See :pep:`586` and :class:`typing.Literal`.
1314  Literal types indicate that a parameter or return value
1315  is constrained to one or more specific literal values::
1316
1317      def get_status(port: int) -> Literal['connected', 'disconnected']:
1318          ...
1319
1320* "Final" variables, functions, methods and classes.  See :pep:`591`,
1321  :class:`typing.Final` and :func:`typing.final`.
1322  The final qualifier instructs a static type checker to restrict
1323  subclassing, overriding, or reassignment::
1324
1325      pi: Final[float] = 3.1415926536
1326
1327* Protocol definitions.  See :pep:`544`, :class:`typing.Protocol` and
1328  :func:`typing.runtime_checkable`.  Simple ABCs like
1329  :class:`typing.SupportsInt` are now ``Protocol`` subclasses.
1330
1331* New protocol class :class:`typing.SupportsIndex`.
1332
1333* New functions :func:`typing.get_origin` and :func:`typing.get_args`.
1334
1335
1336unicodedata
1337-----------
1338
1339The :mod:`unicodedata` module has been upgraded to use the `Unicode 12.1.0
1340<http://blog.unicode.org/2019/05/unicode-12-1-en.html>`_ release.
1341
1342New function :func:`~unicodedata.is_normalized` can be used to verify a string
1343is in a specific normal form, often much faster than by actually normalizing
1344the string.  (Contributed by Max Belanger, David Euresti, and Greg Price in
1345:issue:`32285` and :issue:`37966`).
1346
1347
1348unittest
1349--------
1350
1351Added :class:`~unittest.mock.AsyncMock` to support an asynchronous version of
1352:class:`~unittest.mock.Mock`.  Appropriate new assert functions for testing
1353have been added as well.
1354(Contributed by Lisa Roach in :issue:`26467`).
1355
1356Added :func:`~unittest.addModuleCleanup()` and
1357:meth:`~unittest.TestCase.addClassCleanup()` to unittest to support
1358cleanups for :func:`~unittest.setUpModule()` and
1359:meth:`~unittest.TestCase.setUpClass()`.
1360(Contributed by Lisa Roach in :issue:`24412`.)
1361
1362Several mock assert functions now also print a list of actual calls upon
1363failure. (Contributed by Petter Strandmark in :issue:`35047`.)
1364
1365:mod:`unittest` module gained support for coroutines to be used as test cases
1366with :class:`unittest.IsolatedAsyncioTestCase`.
1367(Contributed by Andrew Svetlov in :issue:`32972`.)
1368
1369Example::
1370
1371   import unittest
1372
1373
1374   class TestRequest(unittest.IsolatedAsyncioTestCase):
1375
1376       async def asyncSetUp(self):
1377           self.connection = await AsyncConnection()
1378
1379       async def test_get(self):
1380           response = await self.connection.get("https://example.com")
1381           self.assertEqual(response.status_code, 200)
1382
1383       async def asyncTearDown(self):
1384           await self.connection.close()
1385
1386
1387   if __name__ == "__main__":
1388       unittest.main()
1389
1390
1391venv
1392----
1393
1394:mod:`venv` now includes an ``Activate.ps1`` script on all platforms for
1395activating virtual environments under PowerShell Core 6.1.
1396(Contributed by Brett Cannon in :issue:`32718`.)
1397
1398
1399weakref
1400-------
1401
1402The proxy objects returned by :func:`weakref.proxy` now support the matrix
1403multiplication operators ``@`` and ``@=`` in addition to the other
1404numeric operators. (Contributed by Mark Dickinson in :issue:`36669`.)
1405
1406
1407xml
1408---
1409
1410As mitigation against DTD and external entity retrieval, the
1411:mod:`xml.dom.minidom` and :mod:`xml.sax` modules no longer process
1412external entities by default.
1413(Contributed by Christian Heimes in :issue:`17239`.)
1414
1415The ``.find*()`` methods in the :mod:`xml.etree.ElementTree` module
1416support wildcard searches like ``{*}tag`` which ignores the namespace
1417and ``{namespace}*`` which returns all tags in the given namespace.
1418(Contributed by Stefan Behnel in :issue:`28238`.)
1419
1420The :mod:`xml.etree.ElementTree` module provides a new function
1421:func:`–xml.etree.ElementTree.canonicalize()` that implements C14N 2.0.
1422(Contributed by Stefan Behnel in :issue:`13611`.)
1423
1424The target object of :class:`xml.etree.ElementTree.XMLParser` can
1425receive namespace declaration events through the new callback methods
1426``start_ns()`` and ``end_ns()``.  Additionally, the
1427:class:`xml.etree.ElementTree.TreeBuilder` target can be configured
1428to process events about comments and processing instructions to include
1429them in the generated tree.
1430(Contributed by Stefan Behnel in :issue:`36676` and :issue:`36673`.)
1431
1432
1433xmlrpc
1434------
1435
1436:class:`xmlrpc.client.ServerProxy` now supports an optional *headers* keyword
1437argument for a sequence of HTTP headers to be sent with each request.  Among
1438other things, this makes it possible to upgrade from default basic
1439authentication to faster session authentication.
1440(Contributed by Cédric Krier in :issue:`35153`.)
1441
1442
1443Optimizations
1444=============
1445
1446* The :mod:`subprocess` module can now use the :func:`os.posix_spawn` function
1447  in some cases for better performance. Currently, it is only used on macOS
1448  and Linux (using glibc 2.24 or newer) if all these conditions are met:
1449
1450  * *close_fds* is false;
1451  * *preexec_fn*, *pass_fds*, *cwd* and *start_new_session* parameters
1452    are not set;
1453  * the *executable* path contains a directory.
1454
1455  (Contributed by Joannah Nanjekye and Victor Stinner in :issue:`35537`.)
1456
1457* :func:`shutil.copyfile`, :func:`shutil.copy`, :func:`shutil.copy2`,
1458  :func:`shutil.copytree` and :func:`shutil.move` use platform-specific
1459  "fast-copy" syscalls on Linux and macOS in order to copy the file
1460  more efficiently.
1461  "fast-copy" means that the copying operation occurs within the kernel,
1462  avoiding the use of userspace buffers in Python as in
1463  "``outfd.write(infd.read())``".
1464  On Windows :func:`shutil.copyfile` uses a bigger default buffer size (1 MiB
1465  instead of 16 KiB) and a :func:`memoryview`-based variant of
1466  :func:`shutil.copyfileobj` is used.
1467  The speedup for copying a 512 MiB file within the same partition is about
1468  +26% on Linux, +50% on macOS and +40% on Windows. Also, much less CPU cycles
1469  are consumed.
1470  See :ref:`shutil-platform-dependent-efficient-copy-operations` section.
1471  (Contributed by Giampaolo Rodolà in :issue:`33671`.)
1472
1473* :func:`shutil.copytree` uses :func:`os.scandir` function and all copy
1474  functions depending from it use cached :func:`os.stat` values. The speedup
1475  for copying a directory with 8000 files is around +9% on Linux, +20% on
1476  Windows and +30% on a Windows SMB share. Also the number of :func:`os.stat`
1477  syscalls is reduced by 38% making :func:`shutil.copytree` especially faster
1478  on network filesystems. (Contributed by Giampaolo Rodolà in :issue:`33695`.)
1479
1480* The default protocol in the :mod:`pickle` module is now Protocol 4,
1481  first introduced in Python 3.4.  It offers better performance and smaller
1482  size compared to Protocol 3 available since Python 3.0.
1483
1484* Removed one ``Py_ssize_t`` member from ``PyGC_Head``.  All GC tracked
1485  objects (e.g. tuple, list, dict) size is reduced 4 or 8 bytes.
1486  (Contributed by Inada Naoki in :issue:`33597`.)
1487
1488* :class:`uuid.UUID` now uses ``__slots__`` to reduce its memory footprint.
1489  (Contributed by Wouter Bolsterlee and Tal Einat in :issue:`30977`)
1490
1491* Improved performance of :func:`operator.itemgetter` by 33%.  Optimized
1492  argument handling and added a fast path for the common case of a single
1493  non-negative integer index into a tuple (which is the typical use case in
1494  the standard library).  (Contributed by Raymond Hettinger in
1495  :issue:`35664`.)
1496
1497* Sped-up field lookups in :func:`collections.namedtuple`.  They are now more
1498  than two times faster, making them the fastest form of instance variable
1499  lookup in Python. (Contributed by Raymond Hettinger, Pablo Galindo, and
1500  Joe Jevnik, Serhiy Storchaka in :issue:`32492`.)
1501
1502* The :class:`list` constructor does not overallocate the internal item buffer
1503  if the input iterable has a known length (the input implements ``__len__``).
1504  This makes the created list 12% smaller on average. (Contributed by
1505  Raymond Hettinger and Pablo Galindo in :issue:`33234`.)
1506
1507* Doubled the speed of class variable writes.  When a non-dunder attribute
1508  was updated, there was an unnecessary call to update slots.
1509  (Contributed by Stefan Behnel, Pablo Galindo Salgado, Raymond Hettinger,
1510  Neil Schemenauer, and Serhiy Storchaka in :issue:`36012`.)
1511
1512* Reduced an overhead of converting arguments passed to many builtin functions
1513  and methods.  This sped up calling some simple builtin functions and
1514  methods up to 20--50%.  (Contributed by Serhiy Storchaka in :issue:`23867`,
1515  :issue:`35582` and :issue:`36127`.)
1516
1517* ``LOAD_GLOBAL`` instruction now uses new "per opcode cache" mechanism.
1518  It is about 40% faster now.  (Contributed by Yury Selivanov and Inada Naoki in
1519  :issue:`26219`.)
1520
1521
1522Build and C API Changes
1523=======================
1524
1525* Default :data:`sys.abiflags` became an empty string: the ``m`` flag for
1526  pymalloc became useless (builds with and without pymalloc are ABI compatible)
1527  and so has been removed. (Contributed by Victor Stinner in :issue:`36707`.)
1528
1529  Example of changes:
1530
1531  * Only ``python3.8`` program is installed, ``python3.8m`` program is gone.
1532  * Only ``python3.8-config`` script is installed, ``python3.8m-config`` script
1533    is gone.
1534  * The ``m`` flag has been removed from the suffix of dynamic library
1535    filenames: extension modules in the standard library as well as those
1536    produced and installed by third-party packages, like those downloaded from
1537    PyPI. On Linux, for example, the Python 3.7 suffix
1538    ``.cpython-37m-x86_64-linux-gnu.so`` became
1539    ``.cpython-38-x86_64-linux-gnu.so`` in Python 3.8.
1540
1541* The header files have been reorganized to better separate the different kinds
1542  of APIs:
1543
1544  * ``Include/*.h`` should be the portable public stable C API.
1545  * ``Include/cpython/*.h`` should be the unstable C API specific to CPython;
1546    public API, with some private API prefixed by ``_Py`` or ``_PY``.
1547  * ``Include/internal/*.h`` is the private internal C API very specific to
1548    CPython. This API comes with no backward compatibility warranty and should
1549    not be used outside CPython. It is only exposed for very specific needs
1550    like debuggers and profiles which has to access to CPython internals
1551    without calling functions. This API is now installed by ``make install``.
1552
1553  (Contributed by Victor Stinner in :issue:`35134` and :issue:`35081`,
1554  work initiated by Eric Snow in Python 3.7.)
1555
1556* Some macros have been converted to static inline functions: parameter types
1557  and return type are well defined, they don't have issues specific to macros,
1558  variables have a local scopes. Examples:
1559
1560  * :c:func:`Py_INCREF`, :c:func:`Py_DECREF`
1561  * :c:func:`Py_XINCREF`, :c:func:`Py_XDECREF`
1562  * :c:func:`PyObject_INIT`, :c:func:`PyObject_INIT_VAR`
1563  * Private functions: :c:func:`_PyObject_GC_TRACK`,
1564    :c:func:`_PyObject_GC_UNTRACK`, :c:func:`_Py_Dealloc`
1565
1566  (Contributed by Victor Stinner in :issue:`35059`.)
1567
1568* The :c:func:`PyByteArray_Init` and :c:func:`PyByteArray_Fini` functions have
1569  been removed. They did nothing since Python 2.7.4 and Python 3.2.0, were
1570  excluded from the limited API (stable ABI), and were not documented.
1571  (Contributed by Victor Stinner in :issue:`35713`.)
1572
1573* The result of :c:func:`PyExceptionClass_Name` is now of type
1574  ``const char *`` rather of ``char *``.
1575  (Contributed by Serhiy Storchaka in :issue:`33818`.)
1576
1577* The duality of ``Modules/Setup.dist`` and ``Modules/Setup`` has been
1578  removed.  Previously, when updating the CPython source tree, one had
1579  to manually copy ``Modules/Setup.dist`` (inside the source tree) to
1580  ``Modules/Setup`` (inside the build tree) in order to reflect any changes
1581  upstream.  This was of a small benefit to packagers at the expense of
1582  a frequent annoyance to developers following CPython development, as
1583  forgetting to copy the file could produce build failures.
1584
1585  Now the build system always reads from ``Modules/Setup`` inside the source
1586  tree.  People who want to customize that file are encouraged to maintain
1587  their changes in a git fork of CPython or as patch files, as they would do
1588  for any other change to the source tree.
1589
1590  (Contributed by Antoine Pitrou in :issue:`32430`.)
1591
1592* Functions that convert Python number to C integer like
1593  :c:func:`PyLong_AsLong` and argument parsing functions like
1594  :c:func:`PyArg_ParseTuple` with integer converting format units like ``'i'``
1595  will now use the :meth:`~object.__index__` special method instead of
1596  :meth:`~object.__int__`, if available.  The deprecation warning will be
1597  emitted for objects with the ``__int__()`` method but without the
1598  ``__index__()`` method (like :class:`~decimal.Decimal` and
1599  :class:`~fractions.Fraction`).  :c:func:`PyNumber_Check` will now return
1600  ``1`` for objects implementing ``__index__()``.
1601  :c:func:`PyNumber_Long`, :c:func:`PyNumber_Float` and
1602  :c:func:`PyFloat_AsDouble` also now use the ``__index__()`` method if
1603  available.
1604  (Contributed by Serhiy Storchaka in :issue:`36048` and :issue:`20092`.)
1605
1606* Heap-allocated type objects will now increase their reference count
1607  in :c:func:`PyObject_Init` (and its parallel macro ``PyObject_INIT``)
1608  instead of in :c:func:`PyType_GenericAlloc`. Types that modify instance
1609  allocation or deallocation may need to be adjusted.
1610  (Contributed by Eddie Elizondo in :issue:`35810`.)
1611
1612* The new function :c:func:`PyCode_NewWithPosOnlyArgs` allows to create
1613  code objects like :c:func:`PyCode_New`, but with an extra *posonlyargcount*
1614  parameter for indicating the number of positional-only arguments.
1615  (Contributed by Pablo Galindo in :issue:`37221`.)
1616
1617* :c:func:`Py_SetPath` now sets :data:`sys.executable` to the program full
1618  path (:c:func:`Py_GetProgramFullPath`) rather than to the program name
1619  (:c:func:`Py_GetProgramName`).
1620  (Contributed by Victor Stinner in :issue:`38234`.)
1621
1622
1623Deprecated
1624==========
1625
1626* The distutils ``bdist_wininst`` command is now deprecated, use
1627  ``bdist_wheel`` (wheel packages) instead.
1628  (Contributed by Victor Stinner in :issue:`37481`.)
1629
1630* Deprecated methods ``getchildren()`` and ``getiterator()`` in
1631  the :mod:`~xml.etree.ElementTree` module now emit a
1632  :exc:`DeprecationWarning` instead of :exc:`PendingDeprecationWarning`.
1633  They will be removed in Python 3.9.
1634  (Contributed by Serhiy Storchaka in :issue:`29209`.)
1635
1636* Passing an object that is not an instance of
1637  :class:`concurrent.futures.ThreadPoolExecutor` to
1638  :meth:`loop.set_default_executor() <asyncio.loop.set_default_executor>` is
1639  deprecated and will be prohibited in Python 3.9.
1640  (Contributed by Elvis Pranskevichus in :issue:`34075`.)
1641
1642* The :meth:`__getitem__` methods of :class:`xml.dom.pulldom.DOMEventStream`,
1643  :class:`wsgiref.util.FileWrapper` and :class:`fileinput.FileInput` have been
1644  deprecated.
1645
1646  Implementations of these methods have been ignoring their *index* parameter,
1647  and returning the next item instead.
1648  (Contributed by Berker Peksag in :issue:`9372`.)
1649
1650* The :class:`typing.NamedTuple` class has deprecated the ``_field_types``
1651  attribute in favor of the ``__annotations__`` attribute which has the same
1652  information. (Contributed by Raymond Hettinger in :issue:`36320`.)
1653
1654* :mod:`ast` classes ``Num``, ``Str``, ``Bytes``, ``NameConstant`` and
1655  ``Ellipsis`` are considered deprecated and will be removed in future Python
1656  versions. :class:`~ast.Constant` should be used instead.
1657  (Contributed by Serhiy Storchaka in :issue:`32892`.)
1658
1659* :class:`ast.NodeVisitor` methods ``visit_Num()``, ``visit_Str()``,
1660  ``visit_Bytes()``, ``visit_NameConstant()`` and ``visit_Ellipsis()`` are
1661  deprecated now and will not be called in future Python versions.
1662  Add the :meth:`~ast.NodeVisitor.visit_Constant` method to handle all
1663  constant nodes.
1664  (Contributed by Serhiy Storchaka in :issue:`36917`.)
1665
1666* The :func:`asyncio.coroutine` :term:`decorator` is deprecated and will be
1667  removed in version 3.10.  Instead of ``@asyncio.coroutine``, use
1668  :keyword:`async def` instead.
1669  (Contributed by Andrew Svetlov in :issue:`36921`.)
1670
1671* In :mod:`asyncio`, the explicit passing of a *loop* argument has been
1672  deprecated and will be removed in version 3.10 for the following:
1673  :func:`asyncio.sleep`, :func:`asyncio.gather`, :func:`asyncio.shield`,
1674  :func:`asyncio.wait_for`, :func:`asyncio.wait`, :func:`asyncio.as_completed`,
1675  :class:`asyncio.Task`, :class:`asyncio.Lock`, :class:`asyncio.Event`,
1676  :class:`asyncio.Condition`, :class:`asyncio.Semaphore`,
1677  :class:`asyncio.BoundedSemaphore`, :class:`asyncio.Queue`,
1678  :func:`asyncio.create_subprocess_exec`, and
1679  :func:`asyncio.create_subprocess_shell`.
1680
1681* The explicit passing of coroutine objects to :func:`asyncio.wait` has been
1682  deprecated and will be removed in version 3.11.
1683  (Contributed by Yury Selivanov in :issue:`34790`.)
1684
1685* The following functions and methods are deprecated in the :mod:`gettext`
1686  module: :func:`~gettext.lgettext`, :func:`~gettext.ldgettext`,
1687  :func:`~gettext.lngettext` and :func:`~gettext.ldngettext`.
1688  They return encoded bytes, and it's possible that you will get unexpected
1689  Unicode-related exceptions if there are encoding problems with the
1690  translated strings. It's much better to use alternatives which return
1691  Unicode strings in Python 3. These functions have been broken for a long time.
1692
1693  Function :func:`~gettext.bind_textdomain_codeset`, methods
1694  :meth:`~gettext.NullTranslations.output_charset` and
1695  :meth:`~gettext.NullTranslations.set_output_charset`, and the *codeset*
1696  parameter of functions :func:`~gettext.translation` and
1697  :func:`~gettext.install` are also deprecated, since they are only used for
1698  for the ``l*gettext()`` functions.
1699  (Contributed by Serhiy Storchaka in :issue:`33710`.)
1700
1701* The :meth:`~threading.Thread.isAlive()` method of :class:`threading.Thread`
1702  has been deprecated.
1703  (Contributed by Dong-hee Na in :issue:`35283`.)
1704
1705* Many builtin and extension functions that take integer arguments will
1706  now emit a deprecation warning for :class:`~decimal.Decimal`\ s,
1707  :class:`~fractions.Fraction`\ s and any other objects that can be converted
1708  to integers only with a loss (e.g. that have the :meth:`~object.__int__`
1709  method but do not have the :meth:`~object.__index__` method).  In future
1710  version they will be errors.
1711  (Contributed by Serhiy Storchaka in :issue:`36048`.)
1712
1713* Deprecated passing the following arguments as keyword arguments:
1714
1715  - *func* in :func:`functools.partialmethod`, :func:`weakref.finalize`,
1716    :meth:`profile.Profile.runcall`, :meth:`cProfile.Profile.runcall`,
1717    :meth:`bdb.Bdb.runcall`, :meth:`trace.Trace.runfunc` and
1718    :func:`curses.wrapper`.
1719  - *function* in :meth:`unittest.TestCase.addCleanup`.
1720  - *fn* in the :meth:`~concurrent.futures.Executor.submit` method of
1721    :class:`concurrent.futures.ThreadPoolExecutor` and
1722    :class:`concurrent.futures.ProcessPoolExecutor`.
1723  - *callback* in :meth:`contextlib.ExitStack.callback`,
1724    :meth:`contextlib.AsyncExitStack.callback` and
1725    :meth:`contextlib.AsyncExitStack.push_async_callback`.
1726  - *c* and *typeid* in the :meth:`~multiprocessing.managers.Server.create`
1727    method of :class:`multiprocessing.managers.Server` and
1728    :class:`multiprocessing.managers.SharedMemoryServer`.
1729  - *obj* in :func:`weakref.finalize`.
1730
1731  In future releases of Python, they will be :ref:`positional-only
1732  <positional-only_parameter>`.
1733  (Contributed by Serhiy Storchaka in :issue:`36492`.)
1734
1735
1736API and Feature Removals
1737========================
1738
1739The following features and APIs have been removed from Python 3.8:
1740
1741*  Starting with Python 3.3, importing ABCs from :mod:`collections` was
1742   deprecated, and importing should be done from :mod:`collections.abc`. Being
1743   able to import from collections was marked for removal in 3.8, but has been
1744   delayed to 3.9. (See :issue:`36952`.)
1745
1746* The :mod:`macpath` module, deprecated in Python 3.7, has been removed.
1747  (Contributed by Victor Stinner in :issue:`35471`.)
1748
1749* The function :func:`platform.popen` has been removed, after having been
1750  deprecated since Python 3.3: use :func:`os.popen` instead.
1751  (Contributed by Victor Stinner in :issue:`35345`.)
1752
1753* The function :func:`time.clock` has been removed, after having been
1754  deprecated since Python 3.3: use :func:`time.perf_counter` or
1755  :func:`time.process_time` instead, depending
1756  on your requirements, to have well-defined behavior.
1757  (Contributed by Matthias Bussonnier in :issue:`36895`.)
1758
1759* The ``pyvenv`` script has been removed in favor of ``python3.8 -m venv``
1760  to help eliminate confusion as to what Python interpreter the ``pyvenv``
1761  script is tied to. (Contributed by Brett Cannon in :issue:`25427`.)
1762
1763* ``parse_qs``, ``parse_qsl``, and ``escape`` are removed from the :mod:`cgi`
1764  module.  They are deprecated in Python 3.2 or older. They should be imported
1765  from the ``urllib.parse`` and ``html`` modules instead.
1766
1767* ``filemode`` function is removed from the :mod:`tarfile` module.
1768  It is not documented and deprecated since Python 3.3.
1769
1770* The :class:`~xml.etree.ElementTree.XMLParser` constructor no longer accepts
1771  the *html* argument.  It never had an effect and was deprecated in Python 3.4.
1772  All other parameters are now :ref:`keyword-only <keyword-only_parameter>`.
1773  (Contributed by Serhiy Storchaka in :issue:`29209`.)
1774
1775* Removed the ``doctype()`` method of :class:`~xml.etree.ElementTree.XMLParser`.
1776  (Contributed by Serhiy Storchaka in :issue:`29209`.)
1777
1778* "unicode_internal" codec is removed.
1779  (Contributed by Inada Naoki in :issue:`36297`.)
1780
1781* The ``Cache`` and ``Statement`` objects of the :mod:`sqlite3` module are not
1782  exposed to the user.
1783  (Contributed by Aviv Palivoda in :issue:`30262`.)
1784
1785* The ``bufsize`` keyword argument of :func:`fileinput.input` and
1786  :func:`fileinput.FileInput` which was ignored and deprecated since Python 3.6
1787  has been removed. :issue:`36952` (Contributed by Matthias Bussonnier.)
1788
1789* The functions :func:`sys.set_coroutine_wrapper` and
1790  :func:`sys.get_coroutine_wrapper` deprecated in Python 3.7 have been removed;
1791  :issue:`36933` (Contributed by Matthias Bussonnier.)
1792
1793
1794Porting to Python 3.8
1795=====================
1796
1797This section lists previously described changes and other bugfixes
1798that may require changes to your code.
1799
1800
1801Changes in Python behavior
1802--------------------------
1803
1804* Yield expressions (both ``yield`` and ``yield from`` clauses) are now disallowed
1805  in comprehensions and generator expressions (aside from the iterable expression
1806  in the leftmost :keyword:`!for` clause).
1807  (Contributed by Serhiy Storchaka in :issue:`10544`.)
1808
1809* The compiler now produces a :exc:`SyntaxWarning` when identity checks
1810  (``is`` and ``is not``) are used with certain types of literals
1811  (e.g. strings, numbers).  These can often work by accident in CPython,
1812  but are not guaranteed by the language spec.  The warning advises users
1813  to use equality tests (``==`` and ``!=``) instead.
1814  (Contributed by Serhiy Storchaka in :issue:`34850`.)
1815
1816* The CPython interpreter can swallow exceptions in some circumstances.
1817  In Python 3.8 this happens in fewer cases.  In particular, exceptions
1818  raised when getting the attribute from the type dictionary are no longer
1819  ignored. (Contributed by Serhiy Storchaka in :issue:`35459`.)
1820
1821* Removed ``__str__`` implementations from builtin types :class:`bool`,
1822  :class:`int`, :class:`float`, :class:`complex` and few classes from
1823  the standard library.  They now inherit ``__str__()`` from :class:`object`.
1824  As result, defining the ``__repr__()`` method in the subclass of these
1825  classes will affect their string representation.
1826  (Contributed by Serhiy Storchaka in :issue:`36793`.)
1827
1828* On AIX, :attr:`sys.platform` doesn't contain the major version anymore.
1829  It is always ``'aix'``, instead of ``'aix3'`` .. ``'aix7'``.  Since
1830  older Python versions include the version number, so it is recommended to
1831  always use ``sys.platform.startswith('aix')``.
1832  (Contributed by M. Felt in :issue:`36588`.)
1833
1834* :c:func:`PyEval_AcquireLock` and :c:func:`PyEval_AcquireThread` now
1835  terminate the current thread if called while the interpreter is
1836  finalizing, making them consistent with :c:func:`PyEval_RestoreThread`,
1837  :c:func:`Py_END_ALLOW_THREADS`, and :c:func:`PyGILState_Ensure`. If this
1838  behavior is not desired, guard the call by checking :c:func:`_Py_IsFinalizing`
1839  or :c:func:`sys.is_finalizing`.
1840  (Contributed by Joannah Nanjekye in :issue:`36475`.)
1841
1842
1843Changes in the Python API
1844-------------------------
1845
1846* The :func:`os.getcwdb` function now uses the UTF-8 encoding on Windows,
1847  rather than the ANSI code page: see :pep:`529` for the rationale. The
1848  function is no longer deprecated on Windows.
1849  (Contributed by Victor Stinner in :issue:`37412`.)
1850
1851* :class:`subprocess.Popen` can now use :func:`os.posix_spawn` in some cases
1852  for better performance. On Windows Subsystem for Linux and QEMU User
1853  Emulation, the :class:`Popen` constructor using :func:`os.posix_spawn` no longer raises an
1854  exception on errors like "missing program".  Instead the child process fails with a
1855  non-zero :attr:`~Popen.returncode`.
1856  (Contributed by Joannah Nanjekye and Victor Stinner in :issue:`35537`.)
1857
1858* The *preexec_fn* argument of * :class:`subprocess.Popen` is no longer
1859  compatible with subinterpreters. The use of the parameter in a
1860  subinterpreter now raises :exc:`RuntimeError`.
1861  (Contributed by Eric Snow in :issue:`34651`, modified by Christian Heimes
1862  in :issue:`37951`.)
1863
1864* The :meth:`imap.IMAP4.logout` method no longer silently ignores arbitrary
1865  exceptions.
1866  (Contributed by Victor Stinner in :issue:`36348`.)
1867
1868* The function :func:`platform.popen` has been removed, after having been deprecated since
1869  Python 3.3: use :func:`os.popen` instead.
1870  (Contributed by Victor Stinner in :issue:`35345`.)
1871
1872* The :func:`statistics.mode` function no longer raises an exception
1873  when given multimodal data.  Instead, it returns the first mode
1874  encountered in the input data.  (Contributed by Raymond Hettinger
1875  in :issue:`35892`.)
1876
1877* The :meth:`~tkinter.ttk.Treeview.selection` method of the
1878  :class:`tkinter.ttk.Treeview` class no longer takes arguments.  Using it with
1879  arguments for changing the selection was deprecated in Python 3.6.  Use
1880  specialized methods like :meth:`~tkinter.ttk.Treeview.selection_set` for
1881  changing the selection.  (Contributed by Serhiy Storchaka in :issue:`31508`.)
1882
1883* The :meth:`writexml`, :meth:`toxml` and :meth:`toprettyxml` methods of
1884  :mod:`xml.dom.minidom`, and the :meth:`write` method of :mod:`xml.etree`,
1885  now preserve the attribute order specified by the user.
1886  (Contributed by Diego Rojas and Raymond Hettinger in :issue:`34160`.)
1887
1888* A :mod:`dbm.dumb` database opened with flags ``'r'`` is now read-only.
1889  :func:`dbm.dumb.open` with flags ``'r'`` and ``'w'`` no longer creates
1890  a database if it does not exist.
1891  (Contributed by Serhiy Storchaka in :issue:`32749`.)
1892
1893* The ``doctype()`` method defined in a subclass of
1894  :class:`~xml.etree.ElementTree.XMLParser` will no longer be called and will
1895  emit a :exc:`RuntimeWarning` instead of a :exc:`DeprecationWarning`.
1896  Define the :meth:`doctype() <xml.etree.ElementTree.TreeBuilder.doctype>`
1897  method on a target for handling an XML doctype declaration.
1898  (Contributed by Serhiy Storchaka in :issue:`29209`.)
1899
1900* A :exc:`RuntimeError` is now raised when the custom metaclass doesn't
1901  provide the ``__classcell__`` entry in the namespace passed to
1902  ``type.__new__``.  A :exc:`DeprecationWarning` was emitted in Python
1903  3.6--3.7.  (Contributed by Serhiy Storchaka in :issue:`23722`.)
1904
1905* The :class:`cProfile.Profile` class can now be used as a context
1906  manager. (Contributed by Scott Sanderson in :issue:`29235`.)
1907
1908* :func:`shutil.copyfile`, :func:`shutil.copy`, :func:`shutil.copy2`,
1909  :func:`shutil.copytree` and :func:`shutil.move` use platform-specific
1910  "fast-copy" syscalls (see
1911  :ref:`shutil-platform-dependent-efficient-copy-operations` section).
1912
1913* :func:`shutil.copyfile` default buffer size on Windows was changed from
1914  16 KiB to 1 MiB.
1915
1916* The ``PyGC_Head`` struct has changed completely.  All code that touched the
1917  struct member should be rewritten.  (See :issue:`33597`.)
1918
1919* The :c:type:`PyInterpreterState` struct has been moved into the "internal"
1920  header files (specifically Include/internal/pycore_pystate.h).  An
1921  opaque ``PyInterpreterState`` is still available as part of the public
1922  API (and stable ABI).  The docs indicate that none of the struct's
1923  fields are public, so we hope no one has been using them.  However,
1924  if you do rely on one or more of those private fields and have no
1925  alternative then please open a BPO issue.  We'll work on helping
1926  you adjust (possibly including adding accessor functions to the
1927  public API).  (See :issue:`35886`.)
1928
1929* The :meth:`mmap.flush() <mmap.mmap.flush>` method now returns ``None`` on
1930  success and raises an exception on error under all platforms.  Previously,
1931  its behavior was platform-dependent: a nonzero value was returned on success;
1932  zero was returned on error under Windows.  A zero value was returned on
1933  success; an exception was raised on error under Unix.
1934  (Contributed by Berker Peksag in :issue:`2122`.)
1935
1936* :mod:`xml.dom.minidom` and :mod:`xml.sax` modules no longer process
1937  external entities by default.
1938  (Contributed by Christian Heimes in :issue:`17239`.)
1939
1940* Deleting a key from a read-only :mod:`dbm` database (:mod:`dbm.dumb`,
1941  :mod:`dbm.gnu` or :mod:`dbm.ndbm`) raises :attr:`error` (:exc:`dbm.dumb.error`,
1942  :exc:`dbm.gnu.error` or :exc:`dbm.ndbm.error`) instead of :exc:`KeyError`.
1943  (Contributed by Xiang Zhang in :issue:`33106`.)
1944
1945* :func:`~os.path.expanduser` on Windows now prefers the :envvar:`USERPROFILE`
1946  environment variable and does not use :envvar:`HOME`, which is not normally
1947  set for regular user accounts.
1948  (Contributed by Anthony Sottile in :issue:`36264`.)
1949
1950* The exception :class:`asyncio.CancelledError` now inherits from
1951  :class:`BaseException` rather than :class:`Exception`.
1952  (Contributed by Yury Selivanov in :issue:`32528`.)
1953
1954* The function :func:`asyncio.wait_for` now correctly waits for cancellation
1955  when using an instance of :class:`asyncio.Task`. Previously, upon reaching
1956  *timeout*, it was cancelled and immediately returned.
1957  (Contributed by Elvis Pranskevichus in :issue:`32751`.)
1958
1959* The function :func:`asyncio.BaseTransport.get_extra_info` now returns a safe
1960  to use socket object when 'socket' is passed to the *name* parameter.
1961  (Contributed by Yury Selivanov in :issue:`37027`.)
1962
1963* :class:`asyncio.BufferedProtocol` has graduated to the stable API.
1964
1965.. _bpo-36085-whatsnew:
1966
1967* DLL dependencies for extension modules and DLLs loaded with :mod:`ctypes` on
1968  Windows are now resolved more securely. Only the system paths, the directory
1969  containing the DLL or PYD file, and directories added with
1970  :func:`~os.add_dll_directory` are searched for load-time dependencies.
1971  Specifically, :envvar:`PATH` and the current working directory are no longer
1972  used, and modifications to these will no longer have any effect on normal DLL
1973  resolution. If your application relies on these mechanisms, you should check
1974  for :func:`~os.add_dll_directory` and if it exists, use it to add your DLLs
1975  directory while loading your library. Note that Windows 7 users will need to
1976  ensure that Windows Update KB2533623 has been installed (this is also verified
1977  by the installer).
1978  (Contributed by Steve Dower in :issue:`36085`.)
1979
1980* The header files and functions related to pgen have been removed after its
1981  replacement by a pure Python implementation. (Contributed by Pablo Galindo
1982  in :issue:`36623`.)
1983
1984* :class:`types.CodeType` has a new parameter in the second position of the
1985  constructor (*posonlyargcount*) to support positional-only arguments defined
1986  in :pep:`570`. The first argument (*argcount*) now represents the total
1987  number of positional arguments (including positional-only arguments). The new
1988  ``replace()`` method of :class:`types.CodeType` can be used to make the code
1989  future-proof.
1990
1991
1992Changes in the C API
1993--------------------
1994
1995* The :c:type:`PyCompilerFlags` structure got a new *cf_feature_version*
1996  field. It should be initialized to ``PY_MINOR_VERSION``. The field is ignored
1997  by default, and is used if and only if ``PyCF_ONLY_AST`` flag is set in
1998  *cf_flags*.
1999  (Contributed by Guido van Rossum in :issue:`35766`.)
2000
2001* The :c:func:`PyEval_ReInitThreads` function has been removed from the C API.
2002  It should not be called explicitly: use :c:func:`PyOS_AfterFork_Child`
2003  instead.
2004  (Contributed by Victor Stinner in :issue:`36728`.)
2005
2006* On Unix, C extensions are no longer linked to libpython except on Android
2007  and Cygwin. When Python is embedded, ``libpython`` must not be loaded with
2008  ``RTLD_LOCAL``, but ``RTLD_GLOBAL`` instead. Previously, using
2009  ``RTLD_LOCAL``, it was already not possible to load C extensions which
2010  were not linked to ``libpython``, like C extensions of the standard
2011  library built by the ``*shared*`` section of ``Modules/Setup``.
2012  (Contributed by Victor Stinner in :issue:`21536`.)
2013
2014* Use of ``#`` variants of formats in parsing or building value (e.g.
2015  :c:func:`PyArg_ParseTuple`, :c:func:`Py_BuildValue`, :c:func:`PyObject_CallFunction`,
2016  etc.) without ``PY_SSIZE_T_CLEAN`` defined raises ``DeprecationWarning`` now.
2017  It will be removed in 3.10 or 4.0.  Read :ref:`arg-parsing` for detail.
2018  (Contributed by Inada Naoki in :issue:`36381`.)
2019
2020* Instances of heap-allocated types (such as those created with
2021  :c:func:`PyType_FromSpec`) hold a reference to their type object.
2022  Increasing the reference count of these type objects has been moved from
2023  :c:func:`PyType_GenericAlloc` to the more low-level functions,
2024  :c:func:`PyObject_Init` and :c:func:`PyObject_INIT`.
2025  This makes types created through :c:func:`PyType_FromSpec` behave like
2026  other classes in managed code.
2027
2028  Statically allocated types are not affected.
2029
2030  For the vast majority of cases, there should be no side effect.
2031  However, types that manually increase the reference count after allocating
2032  an instance (perhaps to work around the bug) may now become immortal.
2033  To avoid this, these classes need to call Py_DECREF on the type object
2034  during instance deallocation.
2035
2036  To correctly port these types into 3.8, please apply the following
2037  changes:
2038
2039  * Remove :c:macro:`Py_INCREF` on the type object after allocating an
2040    instance - if any.
2041    This may happen after calling :c:func:`PyObject_New`,
2042    :c:func:`PyObject_NewVar`, :c:func:`PyObject_GC_New`,
2043    :c:func:`PyObject_GC_NewVar`, or any other custom allocator that uses
2044    :c:func:`PyObject_Init` or :c:func:`PyObject_INIT`.
2045
2046    Example:
2047
2048    .. code-block:: c
2049
2050        static foo_struct *
2051        foo_new(PyObject *type) {
2052            foo_struct *foo = PyObject_GC_New(foo_struct, (PyTypeObject *) type);
2053            if (foo == NULL)
2054                return NULL;
2055        #if PY_VERSION_HEX < 0x03080000
2056            // Workaround for Python issue 35810; no longer necessary in Python 3.8
2057            PY_INCREF(type)
2058        #endif
2059            return foo;
2060        }
2061
2062  * Ensure that all custom ``tp_dealloc`` functions of heap-allocated types
2063    decrease the type's reference count.
2064
2065    Example:
2066
2067    .. code-block:: c
2068
2069        static void
2070        foo_dealloc(foo_struct *instance) {
2071            PyObject *type = Py_TYPE(instance);
2072            PyObject_GC_Del(instance);
2073        #if PY_VERSION_HEX >= 0x03080000
2074            // This was not needed before Python 3.8 (Python issue 35810)
2075            Py_DECREF(type);
2076        #endif
2077        }
2078
2079  (Contributed by Eddie Elizondo in :issue:`35810`.)
2080
2081* The :c:macro:`Py_DEPRECATED()` macro has been implemented for MSVC.
2082  The macro now must be placed before the symbol name.
2083
2084  Example:
2085
2086  .. code-block:: c
2087
2088      Py_DEPRECATED(3.8) PyAPI_FUNC(int) Py_OldFunction(void);
2089
2090  (Contributed by Zackery Spytz in :issue:`33407`.)
2091
2092* The interpreter does not pretend to support binary compatibility of
2093  extension types across feature releases, anymore.  A :c:type:`PyTypeObject`
2094  exported by a third-party extension module is supposed to have all the
2095  slots expected in the current Python version, including
2096  :c:member:`~PyTypeObject.tp_finalize` (:const:`Py_TPFLAGS_HAVE_FINALIZE`
2097  is not checked anymore before reading :c:member:`~PyTypeObject.tp_finalize`).
2098
2099  (Contributed by Antoine Pitrou in :issue:`32388`.)
2100
2101* The :c:func:`PyCode_New` has a new parameter in the second position (*posonlyargcount*)
2102  to support :pep:`570`, indicating the number of positional-only arguments.
2103
2104* The functions :c:func:`PyNode_AddChild` and :c:func:`PyParser_AddToken` now accept
2105  two additional ``int`` arguments *end_lineno* and *end_col_offset*.
2106
2107* The :file:`libpython38.a` file to allow MinGW tools to link directly against
2108  :file:`python38.dll` is no longer included in the regular Windows distribution.
2109  If you require this file, it may be generated with the ``gendef`` and
2110  ``dlltool`` tools, which are part of the MinGW binutils package:
2111
2112  .. code-block:: shell
2113
2114      gendef python38.dll > tmp.def
2115      dlltool --dllname python38.dll --def tmp.def --output-lib libpython38.a
2116
2117  The location of an installed :file:`pythonXY.dll` will depend on the
2118  installation options and the version and language of Windows. See
2119  :ref:`using-on-windows` for more information. The resulting library should be
2120  placed in the same directory as :file:`pythonXY.lib`, which is generally the
2121  :file:`libs` directory under your Python installation.
2122
2123  (Contributed by Steve Dower in :issue:`37351`.)
2124
2125
2126CPython bytecode changes
2127------------------------
2128
2129* The interpreter loop  has been simplified by moving the logic of unrolling
2130  the stack of blocks into the compiler.  The compiler emits now explicit
2131  instructions for adjusting the stack of values and calling the
2132  cleaning-up code for :keyword:`break`, :keyword:`continue` and
2133  :keyword:`return`.
2134
2135  Removed opcodes :opcode:`BREAK_LOOP`, :opcode:`CONTINUE_LOOP`,
2136  :opcode:`SETUP_LOOP` and :opcode:`SETUP_EXCEPT`.  Added new opcodes
2137  :opcode:`ROT_FOUR`, :opcode:`BEGIN_FINALLY`, :opcode:`CALL_FINALLY` and
2138  :opcode:`POP_FINALLY`.  Changed the behavior of :opcode:`END_FINALLY`
2139  and :opcode:`WITH_CLEANUP_START`.
2140
2141  (Contributed by Mark Shannon, Antoine Pitrou and Serhiy Storchaka in
2142  :issue:`17611`.)
2143
2144* Added new opcode :opcode:`END_ASYNC_FOR` for handling exceptions raised
2145  when awaiting a next item in an :keyword:`async for` loop.
2146  (Contributed by Serhiy Storchaka in :issue:`33041`.)
2147
2148* The :opcode:`MAP_ADD` now expects the value as the first element in the
2149  stack and the key as the second element. This change was made so the key
2150  is always evaluated before the value in dictionary comprehensions, as
2151  proposed by :pep:`572`. (Contributed by Jörn Heissler in :issue:`35224`.)
2152
2153
2154Demos and Tools
2155---------------
2156
2157Added a benchmark script for timing various ways to access variables:
2158``Tools/scripts/var_access_benchmark.py``.
2159(Contributed by Raymond Hettinger in :issue:`35884`.)
2160
2161Here's a summary of performance improvements since Python 3.3:
2162
2163.. code-block:: none
2164
2165    Python version                       3.3     3.4     3.5     3.6     3.7     3.8
2166    --------------                       ---     ---     ---     ---     ---     ---
2167
2168    Variable and attribute read access:
2169        read_local                       4.0     7.1     7.1     5.4     5.1     3.9
2170        read_nonlocal                    5.3     7.1     8.1     5.8     5.4     4.4
2171        read_global                     13.3    15.5    19.0    14.3    13.6     7.6
2172        read_builtin                    20.0    21.1    21.6    18.5    19.0     7.5
2173        read_classvar_from_class        20.5    25.6    26.5    20.7    19.5    18.4
2174        read_classvar_from_instance     18.5    22.8    23.5    18.8    17.1    16.4
2175        read_instancevar                26.8    32.4    33.1    28.0    26.3    25.4
2176        read_instancevar_slots          23.7    27.8    31.3    20.8    20.8    20.2
2177        read_namedtuple                 68.5    73.8    57.5    45.0    46.8    18.4
2178        read_boundmethod                29.8    37.6    37.9    29.6    26.9    27.7
2179
2180    Variable and attribute write access:
2181        write_local                      4.6     8.7     9.3     5.5     5.3     4.3
2182        write_nonlocal                   7.3    10.5    11.1     5.6     5.5     4.7
2183        write_global                    15.9    19.7    21.2    18.0    18.0    15.8
2184        write_classvar                  81.9    92.9    96.0   104.6   102.1    39.2
2185        write_instancevar               36.4    44.6    45.8    40.0    38.9    35.5
2186        write_instancevar_slots         28.7    35.6    36.1    27.3    26.6    25.7
2187
2188    Data structure read access:
2189        read_list                       19.2    24.2    24.5    20.8    20.8    19.0
2190        read_deque                      19.9    24.7    25.5    20.2    20.6    19.8
2191        read_dict                       19.7    24.3    25.7    22.3    23.0    21.0
2192        read_strdict                    17.9    22.6    24.3    19.5    21.2    18.9
2193
2194    Data structure write access:
2195        write_list                      21.2    27.1    28.5    22.5    21.6    20.0
2196        write_deque                     23.8    28.7    30.1    22.7    21.8    23.5
2197        write_dict                      25.9    31.4    33.3    29.3    29.2    24.7
2198        write_strdict                   22.9    28.4    29.9    27.5    25.2    23.1
2199
2200    Stack (or queue) operations:
2201        list_append_pop                144.2    93.4   112.7    75.4    74.2    50.8
2202        deque_append_pop                30.4    43.5    57.0    49.4    49.2    42.5
2203        deque_append_popleft            30.8    43.7    57.3    49.7    49.7    42.8
2204
2205    Timing loop:
2206        loop_overhead                    0.3     0.5     0.6     0.4     0.3     0.3
2207
2208    (Measured from the macOS 64-bit builds found at python.org)
2209
2210Notable changes in Python 3.8.1
2211===============================
2212
2213Due to significant security concerns, the *reuse_address* parameter of
2214:meth:`asyncio.loop.create_datagram_endpoint` is no longer supported. This is
2215because of the behavior of the socket option ``SO_REUSEADDR`` in UDP. For more
2216details, see the documentation for ``loop.create_datagram_endpoint()``.
2217(Contributed by Kyle Stanley, Antoine Pitrou, and Yury Selivanov in
2218:issue:`37228`.)
2219