Is python 3 semantically versioned and forwards compatible

Question

I'm looking at some software that is wanting to bring in Python 3.6 for use in an environment where 3.5 is the standard. Reading up on Python's documentation I can't find anything about whether:

• 3.5 is representative of a semantic version number
• 3.6 would represent a forwards compatible upgrade (ie: code written for a 3.5 runtime is guaranteed to work in a 3.6 runtime)

The fact that this page about porting to 3.7 exists makes me think strongly no but I can't see official docs on what the version numbers mean (if anything, ala Linux kernel versioning)

In the more general sense - is there a PEP around compatibility standards within the 3.X release stream?

Answer 1

The short answer is "No", the long answer is "They strive for something close to it".

As a rule, micro versions match semantic versioning rules; they're not supposed to break anything or add features, just fix bugs. This isn't always the case (e.g. 3.5.1 broke vars() on a namedtuple, because it caused a bug that was worse than the break when it came up), but it's very rare for code (especially Python level stuff, as opposed to C extensions) to break across a micro boundary.

Minor versions mostly "add features", but they will also make backwards incompatible changes with prior warning. For example, async and await became keywords in Python 3.7, which meant code using them as variable names broke, but with warnings enabled, you would have seen a DeprecationWarning in 3.6. Many syntax changes are initially introduced as optional imports from the special __future__ module, with documented timelines for becoming the default behavior.

None of the changes made in minor releases are broad changes; I doubt any individual deprecation or syntax change has affected even 1% of existing source code, but it does happen. If you've got a hundred third party dependencies, and you're jumping a minor version or two, there is a non-trivial chance that one of them will be broken by the change (example: pika prior to 0.12 used async as a variable name, and broke on Python 3.7; they released new versions that fixed the bug, but of course, moving from 0.11 and lower to 0.12 and higher changed their own API in ways that might break your code).

Major versions are roughly as you'd expect; backwards incompatible changes are expected/allowed (though they're generally not made frivolously; the bigger the change, the bigger the benefit).

Point is, it's close to semantic versioning, but in the interests of not having major releases every few years, while also not letting the language stagnate due to strict compatibility constraints, minor releases are allowed to break small amounts of existing code as long as there is warning (typically in the form of actual warnings from code using deprecated behavior, notes on the What's New documentation, and sometimes __future__ support to ease the migration path).

This is all officially documented (with slightly less detail) in their Development Cycle documentation:

To clarify terminology, Python uses a major.minor.micro nomenclature for production-ready releases. So for Python 3.1.2 final, that is a major version of 3, a minor version of 1, and a micro version of 2.

• new major versions are exceptional; they only come when strongly incompatible changes are deemed necessary, and are planned very long in advance;
• new minor versions are feature releases; they get released annually, from the current in-development branch;
• new micro versions are bugfix releases; they get released roughly every 2 months; they are prepared in maintenance branches.

Answer 2

Here's the document on updating to 3.6.

If you had, for example, open(apath, 'U+') in your code in 3.5, it would fail in 3.6. So, clearly, Python 3.6 is not entirely backwards compatible to every usage in 3.5.

Realistically, you will need to test, although I feel fairly comfortable telling the average stackoverflow reader from almost every area that they should feel comfortable doing this upgrade.

As for Semantic Versioning, specifically, Python does not follow it, but it isn't entirely agnostic to the meaning of major, minor and bugfix releases. Python guidelines for its developers can be found here.

To clarify terminology, Python uses a major.minor.micro nomenclature for production-ready releases. So for Python 3.1.2 final, that is a major version of 3, a minor version of 1, and a micro version of 2.

• new major versions are exceptional; they only come when strongly incompatible changes are deemed necessary, and are planned very long in advance;
• new minor versions are feature releases; they get released annually, from the current in-development branch;
• new micro versions are bugfix releases; they get released roughly every 2 months; they are prepared in maintenance branches.

Also read PEP440, which is for modules, not about releasing new versions of python itself, but still relevant for the philosophy of the ecosystem.