Confusion about python versions

[Terry Reedy]

On 10/27/2013 2:13 PM, Aseem Bansal wrote:
> Python 2.7.6 release candidate 1 and 3.3.3 release candidate 1 was
> released yesterday. Also Python 3.4.0 alpha 4 was released a week
> ago.
>
> I thought as Python 3.4.0 alpha was released 3.3 branch was done.

Normal 3.3 bugfixes are not done until 3.4.0 (final) is released. There 
will be a 3.3.4 at that time.

> 3.3.3 release candidate fixes many bugs as per the changelog so would
> they be included in 3.4.0?

Yes. 3.3 patches are merged forward unless not applicable.

 > How long do the older versions get supported in case of Python?

After normal maintenance ends, code-only, security-fix-only releases of 
x.y continue after that until 5 years after x.y.0.  3.3.0 was released 
2012 Feb so security releases will continue until about 2017 Feb.

The initial 2.6 release was about 2008 Sept, I believe, so this is 5 
years later.

> Do bugfix releases for older versions keeps on happening even when
> new branch is released?

> Isn't that a lot of work to manage so many versions?

Yes. Core developers will be very happy when normal maintenance of 2.7 ends.

> How do the Python versions work? For how long is Python 2 going to be
> supported?

2.7, released about 2010 July, is a special case. It is already past the 
normal maintenance period of 2 years and will get occasional releases 
until 2015. Security fixes after that are not decided.

-- 
Terry Jan Reedy