diff --git a/Lib/test/test_cmd_line.py b/Lib/test/test_cmd_line.py
index a4b25088597..aa99c151ae7 100644
--- a/Lib/test/test_cmd_line.py
+++ b/Lib/test/test_cmd_line.py
@@ -218,11 +218,11 @@ class CmdLineTest(unittest.TestCase):
         self.assertIn(path2.encode('ascii'), out)
 
     def test_empty_PYTHONPATH_issue16309(self):
-        """On Posix, it is documented that setting PATH to the
-        empty string is equivalent to not setting PATH at all,
-        which is an exception to the rule that in a string like
-        "/bin::/usr/bin" the empty string in the middle gets
-        interpreted as '.'"""
+        # On Posix, it is documented that setting PATH to the
+        # empty string is equivalent to not setting PATH at all,
+        # which is an exception to the rule that in a string like
+        # "/bin::/usr/bin" the empty string in the middle gets
+        # interpreted as '.'
         code = """if 1:
             import sys
             path = ":".join(sys.path)
@@ -232,7 +232,7 @@ class CmdLineTest(unittest.TestCase):
         rc2, out2, err2 = assert_python_ok('-c', code)
         # regarding to Posix specification, outputs should be equal
         # for empty and unset PYTHONPATH
-        self.assertEquals(out1, out2)
+        self.assertEqual(out1, out2)
 
     def test_displayhook_unencodable(self):
         for encoding in ('ascii', 'latin-1', 'utf-8'):