Python Software Foundation: Press Release 20-Dec-2019

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: 2019-12-20

PYTHON 2 SERIES TO BE RETIRED BY APRIL 2020

CPython core development community urging users to migrate to Python 3 as it will be the only version that will be updated for bugs and security vulnerabilities.

The CPython core developer community is retiring the Python 2 series after nearly 20 years of development. The last major version 2.7 will be released in April 2020, and then all development will cease for Python 2. Users are urged to migrate to Python 3 to benefit from its many improvements, as well as to avoid potential security vulnerabilities in Python 2.x after April 2020. This move will free limited resources for the CPthyon core developer community for other important work.

“Ever since the start of active Python 3.0 development efforts in 2006, the announced plan was for it to eventually replace Python 2. Thanks to the combined efforts of an enormous number of contributors across the entire Python ecosystem, Python 3 is now ready for any task that might previously have been handled with Python 2. This is a milestone moment for the Python community. We are so grateful to the countless volunteers and partners that made this possible,” said Nick Coghlan, inaugural Python Steering Council member and author of the Python 3 Q&A.

The final Python 2.7 maintenance release was originally planned for 2015. However, it was delayed 5 years to give people adequate time to migrate and to work closely with vendors and redistributors to ensure that supported Python 3 migration options were available. Part of the reason for this delay was because the stricter text model in Python 3 was forcing the resolution of non-trivial Unicode handling issues in the reference interpreter and standard library, and in migrated libraries and applications.

Python 3 is a noticeable improvement to Python. There is ground-up support for Unicode and internationalization. It better expresses common idioms and patterns, which in code makes it easier to read and reason about. Improvements in concurrency, fault handling, testing, and debugging provide developers with the opportunity to create more robust and secure applications.

Going forward, Python 3 will be the only major version of CPython that is actively maintained for bugs and security issues.

Users are urged to migrate to a supported version of Python 3 in order to benefit from its many improvements, as well as to avoid potential security vulnerabilities in Python 2.x after April 2020. For the current status of Python 3 versions, see https://devguide.python.org/#status-of-python-branches.

Users of commercial Python distributions and commercial applications that embed a Python run-time should contact their vendor about Python 3 migration support.

Developers may use porting guides such as https://portingguide.readthedocs.io as well as various consulting companies.

Also available are a simple FAQ https://www.python.org/doc/sunset-python-2/ and a very detailed FAQ http://python-notes.curiousefficiency.org/en/latest/python3/questions_and_answers.html.