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<!DOCTYPE html> <html lang="en"> <head> <meta charset="utf-8"> <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0"> <meta name="color-scheme" content="light dark"> <title>PEP 569 – Python 3.8 Release Schedule | peps.python.org</title> <link rel="shortcut icon" href="../_static/py.png"> <link rel="canonical" href="https://peps.python.org/pep-0569/"> <link rel="stylesheet" href="../_static/style.css" type="text/css"> <link rel="stylesheet" href="../_static/mq.css" type="text/css"> <link rel="stylesheet" href="../_static/pygments.css" type="text/css" media="(prefers-color-scheme: light)" id="pyg-light"> <link rel="stylesheet" href="../_static/pygments_dark.css" type="text/css" media="(prefers-color-scheme: dark)" id="pyg-dark"> <link rel="alternate" type="application/rss+xml" title="Latest PEPs" href="https://peps.python.org/peps.rss"> <meta property="og:title" content='PEP 569 – Python 3.8 Release Schedule | peps.python.org'> <meta property="og:description" content="This document describes the development and release schedule for Python 3.8. 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The schedule primarily concerns itself with PEP-sized items.</p> </section> <section id="release-manager-and-crew"> <h2><a class="toc-backref" href="#release-manager-and-crew" role="doc-backlink">Release Manager and Crew</a></h2> <ul class="simple"> <li>3.8 Release Manager: Łukasz Langa</li> <li>Windows installers: Steve Dower</li> <li>Mac installers: Ned Deily</li> <li>Documentation: Julien Palard</li> </ul> </section> <section id="lifespan"> <h2><a class="toc-backref" href="#lifespan" role="doc-backlink">3.8 Lifespan</a></h2> <p>3.8 will receive bugfix updates approximately every 2 months for approximately 18 months. Some time after the release of 3.9.0 final, the ninth and final 3.8 bugfix update was released. After that, security updates (source only) were released for 5 years until the release of Python 3.13.0 final.</p> <p>As of 2024-10-07, 3.8 has reached the <a class="reference external" href="https://devguide.python.org/devcycle/#end-of-life-branches">end-of-life phase</a> of its release cycle. 3.8.20 was the final security release. The codebase for 3.8 is now frozen and no further updates will be provided nor issues of any kind will be accepted on the bug tracker.</p> </section> <section id="release-schedule"> <h2><a class="toc-backref" href="#release-schedule" role="doc-backlink">Release Schedule</a></h2> <section id="schedule"> <h3><a class="toc-backref" href="#schedule" role="doc-backlink">3.8.0 schedule</a></h3> <ul class="simple"> <li>3.8 development begins: Monday, 2018-01-29</li> <li>3.8.0 alpha 1: Sunday, 2019-02-03</li> <li>3.8.0 alpha 2: Monday, 2019-02-25</li> <li>3.8.0 alpha 3: Monday, 2019-03-25</li> <li>3.8.0 alpha 4: Monday, 2019-05-06</li> <li>3.8.0 beta 1: Tuesday, 2019-06-04 (No new features beyond this point.)</li> <li>3.8.0 beta 2: Thursday, 2019-07-04</li> <li>3.8.0 beta 3: Monday, 2019-07-29</li> <li>3.8.0 beta 4: Friday, 2019-08-30</li> <li>3.8.0 candidate 1: Tuesday, 2019-10-01</li> <li>3.8.0 final: Monday, 2019-10-14</li> </ul> </section> <section id="bugfix-releases"> <h3><a class="toc-backref" href="#bugfix-releases" role="doc-backlink">Bugfix releases</a></h3> <ul class="simple"> <li>3.8.1rc1: Tuesday, 2019-12-10</li> <li>3.8.1: Wednesday, 2019-12-18</li> <li>3.8.2rc1: Monday, 2020-02-10</li> <li>3.8.2rc2: Monday, 2020-02-17</li> <li>3.8.2: Monday, 2020-02-24</li> <li>3.8.3rc1: Wednesday, 2020-04-29</li> <li>3.8.3: Wednesday, 2020-05-13</li> <li>3.8.4rc1: Tuesday, 2020-06-30</li> <li>3.8.4: Monday, 2020-07-13</li> <li>3.8.5: Monday, 2020-07-20 (security hotfix)</li> <li>3.8.6rc1: Tuesday, 2020-09-08</li> <li>3.8.6: Thursday, 2020-09-24</li> <li>3.8.7rc1: Monday, 2020-12-07</li> <li>3.8.7: Monday, 2020-12-21</li> <li>3.8.8rc1: Tuesday, 2021-02-16</li> <li>3.8.8: Friday, 2021-02-19</li> <li>3.8.9: Friday, 2021-04-02 (security hotfix)</li> <li>3.8.10: Monday, 2021-05-03 (final regular bugfix release with binary installers)</li> </ul> </section> <section id="source-only-security-fix-releases"> <h3><a class="toc-backref" href="#source-only-security-fix-releases" role="doc-backlink">Source-only security fix releases</a></h3> <p>Provided irregularly on an “as-needed” basis until October 7th 2024.</p> <ul class="simple"> <li>3.8.11: Monday, 2021-06-28</li> <li>3.8.12: Monday, 2021-08-30</li> <li>3.8.13: Wednesday, 2022-03-16</li> <li>3.8.14: Tuesday, 2022-09-06</li> <li>3.8.15: Tuesday, 2022-10-11</li> <li>3.8.16: Tuesday, 2022-12-06</li> <li>3.8.17: Tuesday, 2023-06-06</li> <li>3.8.18: Thursday, 2023-08-24</li> <li>3.8.19: Tuesday, 2024-03-19</li> <li>3.8.20: Friday, 2024-09-06 (final security release)</li> </ul> </section> </section> <section id="features-for-3-8"> <h2><a class="toc-backref" href="#features-for-3-8" role="doc-backlink">Features for 3.8</a></h2> <p>Some of the notable features of Python 3.8 include:</p> <ul class="simple"> <li><a class="pep reference internal" href="../pep-0570/" title="PEP 570 – Python Positional-Only Parameters">PEP 570</a>, Positional-only arguments</li> <li><a class="pep reference internal" href="../pep-0572/" title="PEP 572 – Assignment Expressions">PEP 572</a>, Assignment Expressions</li> <li><a class="pep reference internal" href="../pep-0574/" title="PEP 574 – Pickle protocol 5 with out-of-band data">PEP 574</a>, Pickle protocol 5 with out-of-band data</li> <li><a class="pep reference internal" href="../pep-0578/" title="PEP 578 – Python Runtime Audit Hooks">PEP 578</a>, Runtime audit hooks</li> <li><a class="pep reference internal" href="../pep-0587/" title="PEP 587 – Python Initialization Configuration">PEP 587</a>, Python Initialization Configuration</li> <li><a class="pep reference internal" href="../pep-0590/" title="PEP 590 – Vectorcall: a fast calling protocol for CPython">PEP 590</a>, Vectorcall: a fast calling protocol for CPython</li> <li>Typing-related: <a class="pep reference internal" href="../pep-0591/" title="PEP 591 – Adding a final qualifier to typing">PEP 591</a> (Final qualifier), <a class="pep reference internal" href="../pep-0586/" title="PEP 586 – Literal Types">PEP 586</a> (Literal types), and <a class="pep reference internal" href="../pep-0589/" title="PEP 589 – TypedDict: Type Hints for Dictionaries with a Fixed Set of Keys">PEP 589</a> (TypedDict)</li> <li>Parallel filesystem cache for compiled bytecode</li> <li>Debug builds share ABI as release builds</li> <li>f-strings support a handy <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">=</span></code> specifier for debugging</li> <li><code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">continue</span></code> is now legal in <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">finally:</span></code> blocks</li> <li>on Windows, the default <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">asyncio</span></code> event loop is now <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">ProactorEventLoop</span></code></li> <li>on macOS, the <em>spawn</em> start method is now used by default in <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">multiprocessing</span></code></li> <li><code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">multiprocessing</span></code> can now use shared memory segments to avoid pickling costs between processes</li> <li><code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">typed_ast</span></code> is merged back to CPython</li> <li><code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">LOAD_GLOBAL</span></code> is now 40% faster</li> <li><code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">pickle</span></code> now uses Protocol 4 by default, improving performance</li> </ul> <p>There are many other interesting changes, please consult the “What’s New” page in the documentation for a full list.</p> </section> <section id="copyright"> <h2><a class="toc-backref" href="#copyright" role="doc-backlink">Copyright</a></h2> <p>This document has been placed in the public domain.</p> </section> </section> <hr class="docutils" /> <p>Source: <a class="reference external" href="https://github.com/python/peps/blob/main/peps/pep-0569.rst">https://github.com/python/peps/blob/main/peps/pep-0569.rst</a></p> <p>Last modified: <a class="reference external" href="https://github.com/python/peps/commits/main/peps/pep-0569.rst">2024-10-07 17:56:09 GMT</a></p> </article> <nav id="pep-sidebar"> <h2>Contents</h2> <ul> <li><a class="reference internal" href="#abstract">Abstract</a></li> <li><a class="reference internal" href="#release-manager-and-crew">Release Manager and Crew</a></li> <li><a class="reference internal" href="#lifespan">3.8 Lifespan</a></li> <li><a class="reference internal" href="#release-schedule">Release Schedule</a><ul> <li><a class="reference internal" href="#schedule">3.8.0 schedule</a></li> <li><a class="reference internal" href="#bugfix-releases">Bugfix releases</a></li> <li><a class="reference internal" href="#source-only-security-fix-releases">Source-only security fix releases</a></li> </ul> </li> <li><a class="reference internal" href="#features-for-3-8">Features for 3.8</a></li> <li><a class="reference internal" href="#copyright">Copyright</a></li> </ul> <br> <a id="source" href="https://github.com/python/peps/blob/main/peps/pep-0569.rst">Page Source (GitHub)</a> </nav> </section> <script src="../_static/colour_scheme.js"></script> <script src="../_static/wrap_tables.js"></script> <script src="../_static/sticky_banner.js"></script> </body> </html>