[Python-Dev] Interest in a Python 2.3.6?

[Georg Brandl]

Barry Warsaw wrote:
>   I am considering producing a Python 2.3.6 release, which would of 
> course only be a bug fix maintenance release.  The primary reason is 
> that not all OS distributions have upgraded to Python 2.4 and I think 
> it's worthwhile for us to bless a release that fixes known critical 
> bugs.  I'm willing to be the release manager for 2.3.6, but I'm hoping 
> you all will be able to help identify the most important bugs that need 
> fixing.
> 
> First, is there interest in getting a 2.3.6 release out?  I'd propose 
> keeping things simple, by picking a date and releasing what we've got at 
> that date (assuming of course all the unit tests pass).  It's probably a 
> good idea to add a wiki page tracking the fixes we want to get in there.
> 
> 2.5 final is slated for 12-Sep-2006 and I know that Anthony is planning 
> for a 2.4.4 soon after that.  I'm thinking that we'd try to do a 2.3.6 a 
> couple of weeks after 2.4.4 so that people who care about it aren't 
> stacked up with fixing too many branches at once.  My first thought was 
> to shoot for Monday October 9th.
> 
> What are the potential 2.3.6 fixes?  Nothing on this page:
> 
> http://www.python.org/download/releases/2.3.5/bugs/
> 
> seems critical to me.  I know that I've added some important email 
> package fixes that are already in Subversion.  There are tons of bugs 
> and patches reported against 2.3 in SF (lament: why won't SF just /tell/ 
> me how many there are?), but I have no idea atm which, if any, are 
> important enough to go into a 2.3.6.

Most of them are also in the 2.4 releases...

>  I haven't yet done an svn diff to 
> see what changes are already in there.

There's one problem: it was thought for a long time that there wouldn't be
any more 2.3 releases, so bug fixes were applied only in the head and 2.4
branch.

If there will be a 2.3.6, it might be necessary to look at all 2.4 branch
fixes and decide which of them are worth backporting.

Georg