[Python-Dev] cpython (2.6): - Issue #13703: oCERT-2011-003: add -R command-line option and PYTHONHASHSEED

[Éric Araujo]

Le 21/02/2012 03:04, Benjamin Peterson a écrit :
> 2012/2/20 Antoine Pitrou <solipsis at pitrou.net>:
>> Changing the sequence size of sys.flags can break existing code (e.g.
>> tuple-unpacking).
> 
> I told George I didn't think it was a major problem. How much code
> have you seen trying to upack sys.flags? (Moreover, such code would
> have been broken by previous minor releases.)

If by “minor” you mean the Y in Python X.Y.Z, then I think the precedent
does not apply here: people expect to have to check their code when
going from X.Y to X.Y+1, but not when they update X.Y.Z to X.Y.Z+1.  But
I agree this is rather theoretical, as I don’t see why anyone would
iterate over sys.flags.

The important point IMO is having clear policies for us and our users
and sticking with them; here the decision was that adding a new flag in
a bugfix release was needed, so it’s fine.

Regards