PEP: 598 Title: Introducing minor feature releases Version: $Revision$ Last-Modified: $Date$ Author: Nick Coghlan Discussions-To: https://discuss.python.org/t/pep-596-python-3-9-release-schedule-doubling-the-release-cadence/1828 Status: Draft Type: Informational Content-Type: text/x-rst Created: 15-Jun-2019 Python-Version: 3.9 Abstract ======== PEP 596 has proposed reducing the feature delivery latency for the Python standard library and CPython reference interpreter by increasing the frequency of major CPython releases from every 18-24 months to instead occur every 9-12 months. Adopting such an approach has several significant practical downsides, as a CPython major release carries certain expectations (most notably, a 5 year maintenance lifecycle, support for parallel installation with the previous major release, and the possibility of breaking chnages to the CPython-specific ABI, requiring recompilation of all extension modules) that mean faster major releases would significantly increase the burden of maintaining 3rd party Python libraries and applications across all actively supported CPython releases. This PEP presents a competing proposal to instead *slow down* the frequency of parallel installable major feature releases that change the filesystem layout and CPython ABI to a consistent 24 month cycle, but to compensate for this by introducing the notion of build compatible minor feature releases, and then deferring the full feature freeze of a given major release series from the initial X.Y.0 release to an X.Y.Z minor feature release that occurs ~12 months after that initial release. The existing cycle and the new cycle would be synchronised on their feature freeze release dates, so the full Python 3.9.x feature freeze would occur in October 2021, 24 months after the Python 3.8.0 feature release, with the initial Python 3.9.0 release taking place in October 2020. Example Future Release Schedules ================================ Under this proposal, Python 3.9.0a1 would be released in November 2019, shortly after the Python 3.8.0 feature freeze release in October 2019. The 3.9.0b1 release would then follow 6 months later in May 2020, with 3.9.0 itself being released in October 2020. Assuming minor releases of 3.9.x were to occur quarterly, then the overall release timeline would look like: * 2019-11: 3.9.0a1 * ... additional alpha releases as determined by the release manager * 2020-05: 3.9.0b1 * ... additional beta releases as determined by the release manager * 2020-08: 3.9.0bX (final beta release that locks ABI compatibility) * 2020-09: 3.9.0rc1 * ... additional release candidates as determined by the release manager * 2020-10: 3.9.0 * 2021-01: 3.9.1 * 2021-04: 3.9.2 * 2021-07: 3.9.3 * 2021-10: 3.9.4 (final minor feature release) * 2022-01: 3.9.5 * 2022-04: 3.9.6 * 2022-07: 3.9.7 * 2022-10: 3.9.8 (final regular maintenance release) * ... additional security fix only releases as needed * 2025-10: 3.9.x branch closed The Python 3.10 release series would start being published the month after the final Python 3.9 minor feature release, in parallel with the final 12 months of routine Python 3.9 maintenance releases: * 2021-11: 3.10.0a1 * ... additional alpha releases as determined by the release manager * 2022-05: 3.10.0b1 * ... additional beta releases as determined by the release manager * 2022-08: 3.10.0bX (final beta release that locks ABI compatibility) * 2022-09: 3.10.0rc1 * ... additional release candidates as determined by the release manager * 2022-10: 3.10.0 * 2023-01: 3.10.1 * 2023-04: 3.10.2 * 2023-07: 3.10.3 * 2023-10: 3.10.4 (final minor feature release) * 2024-01: 3.10.5 * 2024-04: 3.10.6 * 2024-07: 3.10.7 * 2024-10: 3.10.8 (final regular maintenance release) * ... additional security fix only releases as needed * 2027-10: 3.10.x branch closed In this model, there are always two or three active branches: * 2019-04 -> 2019-10: 3.9.0 pre-alpha, 3.8.0 pre-release, 3.7.x maintenance * 2019-10 -> 2020-05: 3.9.0 pre-beta, 3.8.x maintenance * 2020-05 -> 2020-10: 3.10.0 pre-alpha, 3.9.0 pre-release, 3.8.x maintenance * 2020-10 -> 2021-10: 3.10.0 pre-alpha, 3.9.x feature addition, 3.8.x maintenance * 2021-10 -> 2022-05: 3.10.0 pre-beta, 3.9.x maintenance * 2022-05 -> 2022-10: 3.11.0 pre-alpha, 3.10.0 pre-release, 3.9.x maintenance * 2022-10 -> 2023-10: 3.11.0 pre-alpha, 3.10.x feature addition, 3.9.x maintenance * 2023-10 -> 2024-05: 3.11.0 pre-beta, 3.10.x maintenance * 2024-05 -> 2024-10: 3.12.0 pre-alpha, 3.11.0 pre-release, 3.10.x maintenance * ... etc (Pre-alpha and pre-beta development occurs on the main git branch, all other development occurs on a release specific branch with changes typically backported from the main git branch) TODO: this really needs a diagram to help explain it, so I'll add a picture once I have one to add. This is quite similar to the status quo, but with a more consistent cadence, alternating between major feature release years (2020, 2022, etc) that focus on the alpha and beta cycle for a new major feature release (while continuing to publish maintenance releases for the previous major release series), and minor feature release years (2021, 2023, etc), that focus on making smaller improvements to the current major release series (while making plans for the next major release the following year). Proposal ======== Excluding alpha and beta releases, CPython currently has 3 different kinds of release increment: * Feature release (i.e. ``X.Y.0`` releases) * Maintenance release (``X.Y.Z`` releases within ~2 years of ``X.Y.0``) * Source-only security release (subsequent ``X.Y.Z`` releases) Feature freeze takes place at the time of the ``X.Y.0b1`` release. Build compatibility freeze now takes place at the time of the last beta release (providing time for projects to upload wheel archives to PyPI prior to the first release candidate). This then creates the following periods in the lifecycle of a release series: * Pre-beta (release series is the CPython development branch) * Beta (release enters maintenance mode, ABI compatibility mostly locked) * Maintenance (ABI locked, only bug fixes & docs enhancements accepted) * Security fix only (no further binary releases, only security fixes accepted) * End of life (no further releases of any kind) The proposal in this PEP is that the "Feature release" category be split up into two different kinds of feature release: * Major feature release (``X.Y.0`` releases) * Minor feature release (``X.Y.Z`` releases within ~1 year of ``X.Y.0``) * Maintenance release (``X.Y.Z`` releases within ~1-2 years of of ``X.Y.0``) * Source-only security release (subsequent ``X.Y.Z`` releases) This would then introduce a new "Feature additions" phase in the release series lifecycle: * Pre-beta (release series is the CPython development branch) * Beta (release enters feature additions mode, ABI compatibility not yet locked) * Feature additions (ABI locked, API additions accepted) * Maintenance only (ABI locked, only bug fixes & docs enhancements accepted) * Security fix only (no further binary releases, only security fixes accepted) * End of life (no further releases of any kind) The pre-release beta period would be relaxed to use the minor feature release policy for changes, rather than the stricter maintenance-only release policy. The existing "Maintenance" release series state would be renamed to "Maintenance only", as "Feature addition" releases are also maintenance releases (just as maintenance releases can also be security fix releases). For governance purposes, major feature releases are the only releases that would qualify as a "feature release" in the PEP 13 sense (minor feature releases wouldn't count). Major feature releases ---------------------- Major feature releases are just the existing feature releases, given a new name to help distinguish them from the new minor feature releases. Major feature releases would continue to define the following language, build, and installation compatibility constraints: - Python language grammar - ``ast`` module AST format - CPython interpreter opcode format - ``pyc`` file magic number and filename compatibility tags - extension module filename compatibility tags - wheel archive compatibility tags - default package and module import directories - default installation filename and directories Major feature releases would also continue to be the only releases where: - new deprecations, pending deprecations, and other warnings can be introduced - existing pending deprecations can be converted to full deprecations - existing warnings can be converted to errors - other changes requiring "Porting to Python X.Y" entries in the What's New document can be introduced Key characteristics of major feature releases: - a major feature release installation does not conflict with installations of other major feature releases (i.e. they can be installed in parallel) - a major feature release installation can be updated to a later minor release without requiring reinstallation or any other changes to previously installed components - major feature releases may contain higher risk changes to the language and interpreter, such as grammar modifications, major refactoring of interpreter and standard library internals, or potentially invasive feature additions with a risk of unintended side effects on other existing functionality Key expectations around major feature releases and release series: - most public projects will only actively test against the *most recent* minor release within a release series - many (most?) public projects will only add a new release series to their test matrix *after* the initial feature release has already been published, which can make it difficult to resolve issues that require providing new flags or APIs to explicitly opt-in to old behaviour after a default behaviour changed - private projects with known target environments will test against whichever minor release version they're actually using - most private projects will also only consider migrating to a new release series *after* the initial feature release has already been published, again posing a problem if the resolution of their problems requires an API addition The key motivation of the proposal in this PEP is that the public and private project behaviours described above aren't *new* expectations: they're descriptions of the way CPython release series are already handled by the wider community today. As such, the PEP represents an attempt to adjust our release policies and processes to better match the way the wider community already handles them, rather than changing our processes in a way that then means the wider community needs to adjust to us rather than the other way around. Minor feature releases ---------------------- Minor feature releases are the key new process addition being proposed by this PEP. They are subject to the same strict runtime compatibility requirements as the existing maintenance releases, but would have the following more relaxed policies around API additions and enhancements: * new public APIs can be added to any standard library module (including builtins) * new optional arguments can be added to existing APIs (including builtins) * new public APIs can be added to the stable C ABI (with appropriate version guards) * new public APIs can be added to the CPython C API * with the approval of the release manager, backwards compatible semantic improvements can be made to existing APIs and syntactic constructs * with the approval of the release manager, performance improvements can be incorporated for existing APIs and syntactic constructs The intent of this change in policy is to allow usability improvements for new (and existing!) language features to be delivered in a more timely fashion, rather than requiring users to incur the inherent delay and costs of waiting for and then upgrading to the next major release series. Key expectations around minor feature releases: - "don't break existing installations on upgrade" remains a key requirement for minor releases, even with the more permissive change inclusion policy - more intrusive changes should still be deferred to the next major feature release - public Python projects that start relying on features added in a minor feature release should set their ``Python-Requires`` metadata appropriately (projects already do this when necessary - e.g. ``aiohttp`` specifically requires 3.5.3 or later due to an issue with ``asyncio.get_event_loop()`` in earlier versions) Motivation ========== The motivation for change in this PEP is essentially the same as the motivation for change in PEP 596: the current 18-24 month gap between feature releases has a lot of undesirable consequences, especially for the standard library (see PEP 596 for further articulation of the details). The concern with the specific proposal in PEP 596 is that it doubles the number of actively supported Python branches, increasing the complexity of compatibility testing matrices for the entire Python community, increasing the number of binary Python wheels to be uploaded to PyPI when not using the stable ABI, and just generally having a high chance of inflicting a relatively high level of additional cost across the entire Python ecosystem. The view taken in this PEP is that there's an alternative approach that provides most of the benefits of a faster major release without actually incurring the associated costs: we can split the current X.Y.0 "feature freeze" into two parts, such that X.Y.0 only imposes a "runtime compatibility freeze", and the full feature freeze is deferred until later in the release series lifecycle. Caveats and Limitations ======================= This proposal does NOT retroactively apply to Python 3.8 - it is being proposed for Python 3.9 and later releases only. Actual release dates may be adjusted up to a month earlier or later at the discretion of the release manager, based on release team availability, and the timing of other events (e.g. PyCon US, or the annual core development sprints). However, part of the goal of this proposal is to provide a consistent annual cadence for both contributors and end users, so adjustments ideally would be rare. This PEP does not dictate a specific cadence for minor releases within a release series - it just specifies the timelines for transitions between the release series lifecycle phases (pre-alpha, alpha, beta, feature additions, bug fixes, security fixes). The number of minor releases within each phase is determined by the release manager for that series based on how frequently they and the rest of the release team for that series are prepared to undertake the associated work. However, for the sake of the example timelines, the PEP assumes quarterly minor releases (the cadence used for Python 3.6 and 3.7, splitting the difference between the twice yearly cadence used for some historical release series, and the monthly cadence expected for Python 3.8 and 3.9). Design Discussion ================= Why this proposal over simply doing more frequent major releases? ----------------------------------------------------------------- The filesystem layout changes and other inherently incompatible changes involved in a major version update create additional work for large sections of the wider Python community. Decoupling those layout changes from the Python version numbering scheme is also something that in and of itself involves making backwards incompatible changes. We also don't have a straightforward means to communicate to the community "Only support major version X.Y until X.Y+1 is out, but support X.Z until X.Z+2 is out". So this PEP takes as its starting assumption that the vast majority of Python users simply *shouldn't need to care* that we're changing our release policy, and the only folks that will be affected will be those that are eagerly waiting for standard library improvements, and other backwards compatible interpreter enhancements. Duration of the feature additions period ---------------------------------------- This PEP proposes that feature additions be limited to 12 months after the initial major feature release. The primary motivation for that is specifically to sync up with the Ubuntu LTS timing, such that the final minor feature release for Python 3.9.x gets published in October 2021, ready for inclusion in the Ubuntu 22.04 release. (other LTS Linux distributions like RHEL, SLES, and Debian don't have a fixed publishing cadence, so they can more easily tweak their LTS timing a bit to align with stable versions of their inputs. Canonical deliberately haven't given themselves that flexibility with their own release cycle). The 12 month feature addition period then arises from splitting the time from the 2019-10 release of Python 3.8.0 and a final Python 3.9.x minor feature release in 2021-10 evenly between pre-release development and subsequent minor feature releases. This is an area where this PEP could adopt part of the proposal in PEP 596, by instead making that split ~9 months of pre-release development, and ~15 months of minor feature releases: * 2019-11: 3.9.0a1 * ... additional alpha releases as determined by the release manager * 2020-03: 3.9.0b1 * 2020-04: 3.9.0b2 * 2020-05: 3.9.0b3 (final beta release that locks ABI compatibility) * 2020-06: 3.9.0rc1 * ... additional release candidates as determined by the release manager * 2020-07: 3.9.0 * 2020-10: 3.9.1 * 2021-01: 3.9.2 * 2021-04: 3.9.3 * 2021-07: 3.9.4 * 2021-10: 3.9.5 (final minor feature release) * 2022-01: 3.9.6 * 2022-04: 3.9.7 * 2022-07: 3.9.8 * 2022-10: 3.9.9 (final regular maintenance release) * ... additional security fix only releases as needed * 2025-10: 3.9.x branch closed This approach would mean there were still always two or three active branches, it's just that proportionally more time would be spent with a branch in the "feature additions" phase, as compared to the "pre-alpha", "pre-beta", and "pre-release" phases: * 2019-04 -> 2019-10: 3.9.0 pre-alpha, 3.8.0 pre-release, 3.7.x maintenance * 2019-10 -> 2020-03: 3.9.0 pre-beta, 3.8.x maintenance * 2020-03 -> 2020-07: 3.10.0 pre-alpha, 3.9.0 pre-release, 3.8.x maintenance * 2020-07 -> 2021-10: 3.10.0 pre-alpha, 3.9.x feature addition, 3.8.x maintenance * 2021-10 -> 2022-03: 3.10.0 pre-beta, 3.9.x maintenance * 2022-03 -> 2022-07: 3.11.0 pre-alpha, 3.10.0 pre-release, 3.9.x maintenance * 2022-07 -> 2023-10: 3.11.0 pre-alpha, 3.10.x feature addition, 3.9.x maintenance * 2023-10 -> 2024-03: 3.11.0 pre-beta, 3.10.x maintenance * 2024-03 -> 2024-07: 3.12.0 pre-alpha, 3.11.0 pre-release, 3.10.x maintenance * ... etc Duration of the unreleased pre-alpha period ------------------------------------------- In the baseline proposal in this PEP, the proposed timelines still include periods where we go for 18 months without making a release from the main git branch (e.g. 3.9.0b1 would branch off in 2020-05, and 3.10.0a1 wouldn't be published until 2021-11). They just allow for a wider variety of changes to be backported to the most recent maintenance branch for 12 of those months. The variant of the proposal that moves the beta branch point earlier in the release series lifecycle would increase that period of no direct releases to 21 months - the only period where releases were made directly from the main branch would be during the relatively short window between the last minor feature release of the previous release series, and the beta branch point a few months later. While alternating the annual cadence between "big foundational enhancements" and "targeted low risk API usability improvements" is a deliberate feature of this proposal, it still seems strange to wait that long for feedback in the event that changes *are* made shortly after the previous major version is branched. An alternative way of handling this would be to start publishing alpha releases for the next major feature release during the feature addition period (similar to the way that PEP 596 proposes to starting publishing Python 3.9.0 alpha releases during the Python 3.8.0 release candidate period). However, rather than setting specific timelines for that at a policy level, it may make sense to leave that decision to invididual release managers, based on the specific changes that are being proposed for the release they're managing. Why not switch directly to full semantic versioning? ---------------------------------------------------- If this were a versioning design document for a new language, it *would* use semantic versioning: the policies described above for major feature releases would be applied to X.0.0 releases, the policies for minor feature releases would be applied to X.Y.0 releases, and the policies for maintenance only releases would be applied to X.Y.Z releases. The problem for Python specifically is that all the policies and properties for parallel installation support and ABI compatibility definitions are currently associated with the first *two* fields of the version number, and it has been that way for the better part of thirty years. As a result, it makes sense to split out the policy question of introducing minor feature releases in the first place from the technical question of making the version numbering scheme better match the semantics of the different release types. If the proposal in this PEP were to be accepted by the Steering Council for Python 3.9, then a better time to tackle that technical question would be for the subsequent October 2022 major feature release, as there are already inherent compatibility risks associated with the choice of either "Python 4.0" (erroneous checks for the major version being exactly 3 rather than 3 or greater), or "Python 3.10" (code incorrectly assuming that the minor version will always contain exactly one decimal digit). There are complex pros and cons on both sides of that future choice, and this PEP would merely add one more potential pro in favour of choosing the "Python 4.0" option, with the caveat that we would also need to amend the affected installation layout and compatibility markers to only consider the major version number (rather than both the major and minor version). If such a change were to be proposed and accepted, then the example 3.10.x timeline given above would instead become the following 4.x series timeline: * 2021-11: 4.0.0a1 * ... additional alpha releases as determined by the release manager * 2022-05: 4.0.0b1 * ... additional beta releases as determined by the release manager * 2022-08: 4.0.0bX (final beta release that locks ABI compatibility) * 2022-09: 4.0.0rc1 * ... additional release candidates as determined by the release manager * 2022-10: 4.0.0 * 2023-01: 4.1.0 * 2023-04: 4.2.0 * 2023-07: 4.3.0 * 2023-10: 4.4.0 (final minor feature release) * 2024-01: 4.4.1 * 2024-04: 4.4.2 * 2024-07: 4.4.3 * 2024-10: 4.4.4 (final regular maintenance release) * ... additional security fix only releases as needed * 2027-10: 4.x branch closed And the 5 year schedule forecast would look like: * 2019-04 -> 2019-10: 3.9.0 pre-alpha, 3.8.0 pre-release, 3.7.x maintenance * 2019-10 -> 2020-05: 3.9.0 pre-beta, 3.8.x maintenance * 2020-05 -> 2020-10: 4.0.0 pre-alpha, 3.9.0 pre-release, 3.8.x maintenance * 2020-10 -> 2021-10: 4.0.0 pre-alpha, 3.9.x feature addition, 3.8.x maintenance * 2021-10 -> 2022-05: 4.0.0 pre-beta, 3.9.x maintenance * 2022-05 -> 2022-10: 5.0.0 pre-alpha, 4.0.0 pre-release, 3.9.x maintenance * 2022-10 -> 2023-10: 5.0.0 pre-alpha, 4.x.0 feature addition, 3.9.x maintenance * 2023-10 -> 2024-05: 5.0.0 pre-beta, 4.x.y maintenance * 2024-05 -> 2024-10: 6.0.0 pre-alpha, 5.0.0 pre-release, 4.x.y maintenance * ... etc Copyright ========= This document has been placed in the public domain. .. 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