cpython/Doc/whatsnew/3.4.rst

****************************
  What's New In Python 3.4
****************************

.. :Author: Someone <email>
   (uncomment if there is a principal author)

.. Rules for maintenance:

   * Anyone can add text to this document, but the maintainer reserves the
   right to rewrite any additions. In particular, for obscure or esoteric
   features, the maintainer may reduce any addition to a simple reference to
   the new documentation rather than explaining the feature inline.

   * While the maintainer will periodically go through Misc/NEWS
   and add changes, it's best not to rely on this. We know from experience
   that any changes that aren't in the What's New documentation around the
   time of the original release will remain largely unknown to the community
   for years, even if they're added later. We also know from experience that
   other priorities can arise, and the maintainer will run out of time to do
   updates - in such cases, end users will be much better served by partial
   notifications that at least give a hint about new features to
   investigate.

   * This is not a complete list of every single change; completeness
   is the purpose of Misc/NEWS. The What's New should focus on changes that
   are visible to Python *users* and that *require* a feature release (i.e.
   most bug fixes should only be recorded in Misc/NEWS)

   * PEPs should not be marked Final until they have an entry in What's New.
   A placeholder entry that is just a section header and a link to the PEP
   (e.g ":pep:`397` has been implemented") is acceptable. If a PEP has been
   implemented and noted in What's New, don't forget to mark it as Final!

   * If you want to draw your new text to the attention of the
   maintainer, add 'XXX' to the beginning of the paragraph or
   section.

   * It's OK to add just a very brief note about a change.  For
   example: "The :ref:`~socket.transmogrify()` function was added to the
   :mod:`socket` module."  The maintainer will research the change and
   write the necessary text (if appropriate). The advantage of doing this
   is that even if no more descriptive text is ever added, readers will at
   least have a notification that the new feature exists and a link to the
   relevant documentation.

   * You can comment out your additions if you like, but it's not
   necessary (especially when a final release is some months away).

   * Credit the author of a patch or bugfix.   Just the name is
   sufficient; the e-mail address isn't necessary.

   * It's helpful to add the bug/patch number as a comment:

   The :ref:`~socket.transmogrify()` function was added to the
   :mod:`socket` module. (Contributed by P.Y. Developer in :issue:`12345`.)

   This saves the maintainer the effort of going through the Mercurial log
   when researching a change.

   * Cross referencing tip: :ref:`mod.attr` will display as ``mod.attr``,
   while :ref:`~mod.attr` will display as ``attr``.

This article explains the new features in Python 3.4, compared to 3.3.

.. Python 3.4 was released on TBD.

For full details, see the
`changelog <http://docs.python.org/3.4/whatsnew/changelog.html>`_.

.. note:: Prerelease users should be aware that this document is currently in
   draft form. It will be updated substantially as Python 3.4 moves towards
   release, so it's worth checking back even after reading earlier versions.


.. seealso::

   .. :pep:`4XX` - Python 3.4 Release Schedule


Summary -- Release highlights
=============================

.. This section singles out the most important changes in Python 3.4.
   Brevity is key.

New syntax features:

* No new syntax features are planned for Python 3.4.

New library modules:

* :mod:`asyncio`: New provisonal API for asynchronous IO (:pep:`3156`).
* :mod:`enum`: Support for enumeration types (:pep:`435`).
* :mod:`selectors`: High-level and efficient I/O multiplexing, built upon the
  :mod:`select` module primitives.
* :mod:`statistics`: A basic numerically stable statistics library (:pep:`450`).

New built-in features:

* :ref:`PEP 442: Safe object finalization <pep-442>`.
* :ref:`PEP 445: Configurable memory allocators <pep-445>`.
* :ref:`PEP 446: Make newly created file descriptors non-inheritable <pep-446>`.

Implementation improvements:

* A more efficient :mod:`marshal` format (:issue:`16475`).
* Improve finalization of Python modules to avoid setting their globals
  to None, in most cases (:issue:`18214`).
* "Argument Clinic", providing improved introspection support for builtin
  and standard library extension types implemented in C (:pep:`436`)

Significantly Improved Library Modules:

* Single-dispatch generic functions (:pep:`443`)
* SHA-3 (Keccak) support for :mod:`hashlib`.
* TLSv1.1 and TLSv1.2 support for :mod:`ssl`.
* :mod:`multiprocessing` now has option to avoid using :func:`os.fork`
  on Unix (:issue:`8713`).

Security improvements:

* command line option for :ref:`isolated mode <using-on-misc-options>`,
  :issue:`16499`.

Please read on for a comprehensive list of user-facing changes.

.. _pep-446:

PEP 446: Make newly created file descriptors non-inheritable
============================================================

The :pep:`446` makes newly created file descriptors :ref:`non-inheritable
<fd_inheritance>`.  New functions and methods:

* :func:`os.get_inheritable`, :func:`os.set_inheritable`
* :func:`os.get_handle_inheritable`, :func:`os.set_handle_inheritable`
* :meth:`socket.socket.get_inheritable`, :meth:`socket.socket.set_inheritable`


.. _pep-445:

PEP 445: Add new APIs to customize Python memory allocators
===========================================================

The :pep:`445` adds new Application Programming Interfaces (API) to customize
Python memory allocators.


.. _pep-442:

PEP 442: Safe object finalization
=================================

This PEP removes the current limitations and quirks of object finalization.
With it, objects with :meth:`__del__` methods, as well as generators
with :keyword:`finally` clauses, can be finalized when they are part of a
reference cycle.

As part of this change, module globals are no longer forcibly set to
:const:`None` during interpreter shutdown, instead relying on the normal
operation of the cyclic garbage collector.

.. seealso::

   :pep:`442` - Safe object finalization
      PEP written and implemented by Antoine Pitrou


Other Language Changes
======================

Some smaller changes made to the core Python language are:

* Unicode database updated to UCD version 6.3.

* :func:`min` and :func:`max` now accept a *default* argument that can be used
  to specify the value they return if the iterable they are evaluating has no
  elements.  Contributed by Julian Berman in :issue:`18111`.

* Module objects are now :mod:`weakref`'able.

* Module ``__file__`` attributes (and related values) should now always
  contain absolute paths by default, with the sole exception of
  ``__main__.__file__`` when a script has been executed directly using
  a relative path (Contributed by Brett Cannon in :issue:`18416`).


New Modules
===========


asyncio
-------

The new :mod:`asyncio` module (defined in :pep:`3156`) provides a standard
pluggable event loop model for Python, providing solid asynchronous IO
support in the standard library, and making it easier for other event loop
implementations to interoperate with the standard library and each other.

For Python 3.4, this module is considered a :term:`provisional API`.

enum
----

The new :mod:`enum` module provides a standard implementation of enumeration
types, allowing other modules (such as :mod:`socket`) to provide more
informative error messages and better debugging support by replacing opaque
integer constants with backwards compatible enumeration values.


selectors
---------

The new :mod:`selectors` module (created as part of implementing :pep:`3156`)
allows high-level and efficient I/O multiplexing, built upon the
:mod:`select` module primitives.


statistics
----------

The new :mod:`statistics` module (defined in :pep:`450`) offers some core
statistics functionality directly in the standard library. This module
supports calculation of the mean, median, mode, variance and standard
deviation of a data series.


Improved Modules
================

aifc
----

The :meth:`~aifc.getparams` method now returns a namedtuple rather than a
plain tuple.  (Contributed by Claudiu Popa in :issue:`17818`.)


audioop
-------

Added support for 24-bit samples (:issue:`12866`).


codecs
------

The :meth:`codecs.encode` and :meth:`codecs.decode` convenience functions are
now properly documented. These functions have existed in the :mod:`codecs`
module since ~2004, but were previously only discoverable through runtime
introspection.

Unlike the convenience methods on :class:`str`, :class:`bytes` and
:class:`bytearray`, these convenience functions support arbitrary codecs,
rather than being limited to Unicode text encodings.


colorsys
--------

The number of digits in the coefficients for the RGB --- YIQ conversions have
been expanded so that they match the FCC NTSC versions.  The change in
results should be less than 1% and may better match results found elsewhere.


contextlib
----------

The new :class:`contextlib.suppress` context manager helps to clarify the
intent of code that deliberately suppresses exceptions from a single
statement. (Contributed by Raymond Hettinger in :issue:`15806` and
Zero Piraeus in :issue:`19266`)

The new :func:`contextlib.redirect_stdout` context manager makes it easier
for utility scripts to handle inflexible APIs that don't provide any
options to retrieve their output as a string or direct it to somewhere
other than :data:`sys.stdout`. In conjunction with :class:`io.StringIO`,
this context manager is also useful for checking expected output from
command line utilities. (Contribute by Raymond Hettinger in :issue:`15805`)

The :mod:`contextlib` documentation has also been updated to include a
:ref:`discussion <single-use-reusable-and-reentrant-cms>` of the
differences between single use, reusable and reentrant context managers.


dis
---

The :mod:`dis` module is now built around an :class:`~dis.Instruction` class
that provides details of individual bytecode operations and a
:func:`~dis.get_instructions` iterator that emits the Instruction stream for a
given piece of Python code. The various display tools in the :mod:`dis`
module have been updated to be based on these new components.

The new :class:`dis.Bytecode` class provides an object-oriented API for
inspecting bytecode, both in human-readable form and for iterating over
instructions.

(Contributed by Nick Coghlan, Ryan Kelly and Thomas Kluyver in :issue:`11816`)


doctest
-------

Added :data:`~doctest.FAIL_FAST` flag to halt test running as soon as the first
failure is detected.  (Contributed by R. David Murray and Daniel Urban in
:issue:`16522`.)

Updated the doctest command line interface to use :mod:`argparse`, and added
``-o`` and ``-f`` options to the interface.  ``-o`` allows doctest options to
be specified on the command line, and ``-f`` is a shorthand for ``-o
FAIL_FAST`` (to parallel the similar option supported by the :mod:`unittest`
CLI).  (Contributed by R. David Murray in :issue:`11390`.)


email
-----

:meth:`~email.message.Message.as_string` now accepts a *policy* argument to
override the default policy of the message when generating a string
representation of it.  This means that ``as_string`` can now be used in more
circumstances, instead of having to create and use a :mod:`~email.generator` in
order to pass formatting parameters to its ``flatten`` method.

New method :meth:`~email.message.Message.as_bytes` added to produce a bytes
representation of the message in a fashion similar to how ``as_string``
produces a string representation.  It does not accept the *maxheaderlen*
argument, but does accept the *unixfrom* and *policy* arguments. The
:class:`~email.message.Message` :meth:`~email.message.Message.__bytes__` method
calls it, meaning that ``bytes(mymsg)`` will now produce the intuitive
result:  a bytes object containing the fully formatted message.

(Contributed by R. David Murray in :issue:`18600`.)

A pair of new subclasses of :class:`~email.message.Message` have been added,
along with a new sub-module, :mod:`~email.contentmanager`.  All documentation
is currently in the new module, which is being added as part of the new
:term:`provisional <provisional package>` email API.  These classes provide a
number of new methods that make extracting content from and inserting content
into email messages much easier.  See the :mod:`~email.contentmanager`
documentation for details.

These API additions complete the bulk of the work that was planned as part of
the email6 project.  The currently provisional API is scheduled to become final
in Python 3.5 (possibly with a few minor additions in the area of error
handling).

(Contributed by R. David Murray in :issue:`18891`.)


functools
---------

New :func:`functools.singledispatch` decorator: see the :pep:`443`.


hashlib
-------

New :func:`hashlib.pbkdf2_hmac` function.

(Contributed by Christian Heimes in :issue:`18582`)


inspect
-------


The inspect module now offers a basic command line interface to quickly
display source code and other information for modules, classes and
functions.

:func:`~inspect.unwrap` makes it easy to unravel wrapper function chains
created by :func:`functools.wraps` (and any other API that sets the
``__wrapped__`` attribute on a wrapper function).

mmap
----

mmap objects can now be weakref'ed.

(Contributed by Valerie Lambert in :issue:`4885`.)


multiprocessing
---------------

On Unix two new *start methods* have been added for starting processes
using :mod:`multiprocessing`.  These make the mixing of processes with
threads more robust.  See :issue:`8713`.

Also, except when using the old *fork* start method, child processes
will no longer inherit unneeded handles/file descriptors from their parents.


os
--

New functions to get and set the :ref:`inheritable flag <fd_inheritance>` of a file
descriptors or a Windows handle:

* :func:`os.get_inheritable`, :func:`os.set_inheritable`
* :func:`os.get_handle_inheritable`, :func:`os.set_handle_inheritable`


pdb
---

The ``print`` command has been removed from :mod:`pdb`, restoring access to the
``print`` function.

Rationale: Python2's ``pdb`` did not have a ``print`` command; instead,
entering ``print`` executed the ``print`` statement.  In Python3 ``print`` was
mistakenly made an alias for the pdb :pdbcmd:`p` command.  ``p``, however,
prints the ``repr`` of its argument, not the ``str`` like the Python2 ``print``
command did.  Worse, the Python3 ``pdb print`` command shadowed the Python3
``print`` function, making it inaccessible at the ``pdb`` prompt.

(Contributed by Connor Osborn in :issue:`18764`.)


poplib
------

New :meth:`~poplib.POP3.stls` method to switch a clear-text POP3 session into
an encrypted POP3 session.

New :meth:`~poplib.POP3.capa` method to query the capabilities advertised by the
POP3 server.

(Contributed by Lorenzo Catucci in :issue:`4473`.)


pprint
------

The :mod:`pprint` module now supports *compact* mode for formatting long
sequences (:issue:`19132`).


resource
--------

New :func:`resource.prlimit` function and Linux specific constants.
(Contributed by Christian Heimes in :issue:`16595` and :issue:`19324`.)

smtplib
-------

:exc:`~smtplib.SMTPException` is now a subclass of :exc:`OSError`, which allows
both socket level errors and SMTP protocol level errors to be caught in one
try/except statement by code that only cares whether or not an error occurred.
(:issue:`2118`).


socket
------

Socket objects have new methods to get or set their :ref:`inheritable flag
<fd_inheritance>`:

* :meth:`socket.socket.get_inheritable`, :meth:`socket.socket.set_inheritable`

The ``socket.AF_*`` and ``socket.SOCK_*`` constants are enumeration values,
using the new :mod:`enum` module. This allows descriptive reporting during
debugging, instead of seeing integer "magic numbers".

ssl
---

TLSv1.1 and TLSv1.2 support.

(Contributed by Michele Orrù and Antoine Pitrou in :issue:`16692`)

* New diagnostic functions :func:`~ssl.get_default_verify_paths`,
  :meth:`~ssl.SSLContext.cert_store_stats` and
  :meth:`~ssl.SSLContext.get_ca_certs`

* Add :func:`ssl.enum_cert_store` to retrieve certificates and CRL from Windows'
  cert store.

(Contributed by Christian Heimes in :issue:`18143`, :issue:`18147` and
 :issue:`17134`.)

Support for server-side SNI using the new
:meth:`ssl.SSLContext.set_servername_callback` method.

(Contributed by Daniel Black in :issue:`8109`.)


stat
----

The :mod:`stat` module is now backed by a C implementation in :mod:`_stat`. A C
implementation is required as most of the values aren't standardized and
platform-dependent.  (Contributed by Christian Heimes in :issue:`11016`.)

The module supports new file types: door, event port and whiteout.


struct
------

Streaming struct unpacking using :func:`struct.iter_unpack`.

(Contributed by Antoine Pitrou in :issue:`17804`.)


sunau
-----

The :meth:`~sunau.getparams` method now returns a namedtuple rather than a
plain tuple.  (Contributed by Claudiu Popa in :issue:`18901`.)

:meth:`sunau.open` now supports the context manager protocol (:issue:`18878`).


traceback
---------

A new :func:`traceback.clear_frames` function takes a traceback object
and clears the local variables in all of the frames it references,
reducing the amount of memory consumed (:issue:`1565525`).


urllib
------

Add support.for ``data:`` URLs in :mod:`urllib.request`.

(Contributed by Mathias Panzenböck in :issue:`16423`.)


unittest
--------

Support for easy dynamically-generated subtests using the
:meth:`~unittest.TestCase.subTest` context manager.

(Contributed by Antoine Pitrou in :issue:`16997`.)


wave
----

The :meth:`~wave.getparams` method now returns a namedtuple rather than a
plain tuple.  (Contributed by Claudiu Popa in :issue:`17487`.)

:meth:`wave.open` now supports the context manager protocol.  (Contributed
by Claudiu Popa in :issue:`17616`.)


weakref
-------

New :class:`~weakref.WeakMethod` class simulates weak references to bound
methods. (Contributed by Antoine Pitrou in :issue:`14631`.)

New :class:`~weakref.finalize` class makes it possible to register a callback
to be invoked when an object is garbage collected, without needing to
carefully manage the lifecycle of the weak reference itself. (Contributed by
Richard Oudkerk in :issue:`15528`)


xml.etree
---------

Add an event-driven parser for non-blocking applications,
:class:`~xml.etree.ElementTree.XMLPullParser`.

(Contributed by Antoine Pitrou in :issue:`17741`.)


zipfile.PyZipfile
-----------------

Add a filter function to ignore some packages (tests for instance),
:meth:`~zipfile.PyZipFile.writepy`.

(Contributed by Christian Tismer in :issue:`19274`.)


Other improvements
==================

Tab-completion is now enabled by default in the interactive interpreter.

(Contributed by Antoine Pitrou and Éric Araujo in :issue:`5845`.)

Python invocation changes
=========================

Invoking the Python interpreter with ``--version`` now outputs the version to
standard output instead of standard error (:issue:`18338`). Similar changes
were made to :mod:`argparse` (:issue:`18920`) and other modules that have
script-like invocation capabilities (:issue:`18922`).

Optimizations
=============

Major performance enhancements have been added:

* The UTF-32 decoder is now 3x to 4x faster.

* The cost of hash collisions for sets is now reduced.  Each hash table
  probe now checks a series of consecutive, adjacent key/hash pairs before
  continuing to make random probes through the hash table.  This exploits
  cache locality to make collision resolution less expensive.

  The collision resolution scheme can be described as a hybrid of linear
  probing and open addressing.  The number of additional linear probes
  defaults to nine.  This can be changed at compile-time by defining
  LINEAR_PROBES to be any value.  Set LINEAR_PROBES=0 to turn-off
  linear probing entirely.

  (Contributed by Raymond Hettinger in :issue"`18771`.)

* The interpreter starts about 30% faster. A couple of measures lead to the
  speedup. The interpreter loads fewer modules on startup, e.g. the :mod:`re`,
  :mod:`collections` and :mod:`locale` modules and their dependencies are no
  longer imported by default. The marshal module has been improved to load
  compiled Python code faster.

  (Contributed by Antoine Pitrou, Christian Heimes and Victor Stinner in
  :issue:`19219`, :issue:`19218`, :issue:`19209`, :issue:`19205` and
  :issue:`9548`)


Build and C API Changes
=======================

Changes to Python's build process and to the C API include:

* The new :c:func:`Py_SetStandardStreamEncoding` pre-initialization API
  allows applications embedding the CPython interpreter to reliably force
  a particular encoding and error handler for the standard streams
  (Contributed by Bastien Montagne and Nick Coghlan in :issue:`16129`)

* Most Python C APIs that don't mutate string arguments are now correctly
  marked as accepting ``const char *`` rather than ``char *`` (Contributed
  by Serhiy Storchaka in :issue:`1772673`).

* "Argument Clinic" (:pep:`436`) is now part of the CPython build process
  and can be used to simplify the process of defining and maintaining
  accurate signatures for builtins and standard library extension modules
  implemented in C.


Deprecated
==========

Unsupported Operating Systems
-----------------------------

* OS/2
* Windows 2000


Deprecated Python modules, functions and methods
------------------------------------------------

* :meth:`difflib.SequenceMatcher.isbjunk` and
  :meth:`difflib.SequenceMatcher.isbpopular` were removed: use ``x in sm.bjunk`` and
  ``x in sm.bpopular``, where *sm* is a :class:`~difflib.SequenceMatcher` object.

* :func:`importlib.util.module_for_loader` is pending deprecation. Using
  :func:`importlib.util.module_to_load` and
  :meth:`importlib.abc.Loader.init_module_attrs` allows subclasses of a loader
  to more easily customize module loading.

* The :mod:`imp` module is pending deprecation. To keep compatibility with
  Python 2/3 code bases, the module's removal is currently not scheduled.

* The :mod:`formatter` module is pending deprecation and is slated for removal
  in Python 3.6.


Deprecated functions and types of the C API
-------------------------------------------

* The ``PyThreadState.tick_counter`` field has been value: its value was meaningless
  since Python 3.2 ("new GIL").


Deprecated features
-------------------

* No feature deprecations are planned for Python 3.4.


Porting to Python 3.4
=====================

This section lists previously described changes and other bugfixes
that may require changes to your code.

* The ABCs defined in :mod:`importlib.abc` now either raise the appropriate
  exception or return a default value instead of raising
  :exc:`NotImplementedError` blindly. This will only affect code calling
  :func:`super` and falling through all the way to the ABCs. For compatibility,
  catch both :exc:`NotImplementedError` or the appropriate exception as needed.

* The module type now initializes the :attr:`__package__` and :attr:`__loader__`
  attributes to ``None`` by default. To determine if these attributes were set
  in a backwards-compatible fashion, use e.g.
  ``getattr(module, '__loader__', None) is not None``.

* :meth:`importlib.util.module_for_loader` now sets ``__loader__`` and
  ``__package__`` unconditionally to properly support reloading. If this is not
  desired then you will need to set these attributes manually. You can use
  :func:`importlib.util.module_to_load` for module management.

* Import now resets relevant attributes (e.g. ``__name__``, ``__loader__``,
  ``__package__``, ``__file__``, ``__cached__``) unconditionally when reloading.

* Frozen packages no longer set ``__path__`` to a list containing the package
  name but an empty list instead. Determing if a module is a package should be
  done using ``hasattr(module, '__path__')``.

* :c:func:`PyErr_SetImportError` now sets :exc:`TypeError` when its **msg**
  argument is not set. Previously only ``NULL`` was returned with no exception
  set.

* :func:`py_compile.compile` now raises :exc:`FileExistsError` if the file path
  it would write to is a symlink or a non-regular file. This is to act as a
  warning that import will overwrite those files with a regular file regardless
  of what type of file path they were originally.

* :meth:`importlib.abc.SourceLoader.get_source` no longer raises
  :exc:`ImportError` when the source code being loaded triggers a
  :exc:`SyntaxError` or :exc:`UnicodeDecodeError`. As :exc:`ImportError` is
  meant to be raised only when source code cannot be found but it should, it was
  felt to be over-reaching/overloading of that meaning when the source code is
  found but improperly structured. If you were catching ImportError before and
  wish to continue to ignore syntax or decoding issues, catch all three
  exceptions now.

* :func:`functools.update_wrapper` and :func:`functools.wraps` now correctly
  set the ``__wrapped__`` attribute even if the wrapped function had a
  wrapped attribute set. This means ``__wrapped__`` attributes now correctly
  link a stack of decorated functions rather than every ``__wrapped__``
  attribute in the chain referring to the innermost function. Introspection
  libraries that assumed the previous behaviour was intentional can use
  :func:`inspect.unwrap` to gain equivalent behaviour.

* (C API) The result of the :c:data:`PyOS_ReadlineFunctionPointer` callback must
  now be a string allocated by :c:func:`PyMem_RawMalloc` or
  :c:func:`PyMem_RawRealloc`, or *NULL* if an error occurred, instead of a
  string allocated by :c:func:`PyMem_Malloc` or :c:func:`PyMem_Realloc`.

* :class:`importlib.machinery.PathFinder` now passes on the current working
  directory to objects in :data:`sys.path_hooks` for the empty string. This
  results in :data:`sys.path_importer_cache` never containing ``''``, thus
  iterating through :data:`sys.path_importer_cache` based on :data:`sys.path`
  will not find all keys. A module's ``__file__`` when imported in the current
  working directory will also now have an absolute path, including when using
  ``-m`` with the interpreter (this does not influence when the path to a file
  is specified on the command-line).

* :class:`importlib.machinery.FileFinder` no longer special-cases the empty string
  to be changed to ``'.'``.