Python 3.11 final release might be delayed to December

[Miro Hrončok]

Hello,
forwarding this  message to Fedora.

Will know more by the end of this week -- we might need to consider reverting 
back to Python 3.10 if we don't want to ship Fedora 37 GA with a beta version 
of Python :(

Fedora 37 mass rebuild is planned for 2022-07-20 -- I will make sure we know 
what to do by then.

Too bad we haven't known this before we started the 3.11 mass rebuild :/


-------- Forwarded Message --------
Subject: 	[Python-Dev] [Release] Status of Python 3.11 release
Date: 	Mon, 4 Jul 2022 23:36:39 +0100
From: 	Pablo Galindo Salgado <pablogsal(a)gmail.com&gt;
To: 	Python Dev <python-dev(a)python.org&gt;, python-committers 
<python-committers(a)python.org&gt;



Hi everyone,

# TLDR

We may be pushing the final release until December if the stability of Python 
3.11 doesn't improve.

# Long Explanation

Unfortunately, we cannot still release the next Python 3.11 beta release 
(3.11.0b4) because we still have a bunch
of pending release blockers. Unfortunately, this is still after several 
preexisting release blockers have been fixed,
some of them being discovered after I sent my last update. These are the 
current release blockers:

https://github.com/python/cpython/issues?q=is%3Aissue+is%3Aopen+sort%3Aup...

<https://github.com/python/cpython/issues?q=is%3Aissue+is%3Aopen+sort%3Aup...

We also have some deferred blockers (some of them should actually be release 
blockers):

https://github.com/python/cpython/issues?q=is%3Aissue+is%3Aopen+sort%3Aup...

<https://github.com/python/cpython/issues?q=is%3Aissue+is%3Aopen+sort%3Aup...

Due to this and the fact that we are already 3 weeks delayed in the release 
schedule, the current stability of Python 3.11 is not as good
as it is supposed to be at this stage of the release schedule and more testing 
from end-users and library authors is required. After
discussing with the Steering Council, we are considering delaying the final 
release until December to allow for two more beta releases.
This is how we are going to proceed:

* If the current release blockers are not fixed by the end of this week, two 
more betas will be released (1 month per beta) and
we will *definitely* delay the final release until December.
* If the current release blockers are fixed we will proceed to release Python 
3.11.0b4 on Monday. We will target the current release
date (Monday, 2022-10-03) but if more release blockers that affect fundamental 
parts of the Python interpreter or the standard libraries
are raised, the release team will still consider adding two more betas nd 
pushing the final release to December.

One of the goals that we are going to try to achieve from the release team is 
that no substantial code changes are added between the last
beta and the first release candidate. This is so all the fixes that affect 
fundamental parts of the interpreter or the standard library can be
tested by end-users before the first release candidate is released (and not 
with it). This is also partially because once we release the first release
candidate, the ABI will be frozen and certain kinds of fixes will be more 
complicated.

Hopefully, this addresses some of you that have reached out with concerns over 
the stability of Python 3.11 and the release schedule.

I understand that delaying the release until December will complicate things 
for some Linux distributions and will affect end users and redistributors
targeting the original release, but please understand that our 
responsibility in the release team after all is to guarantee a stable final release
above all and unfortunately, we don't currently have the confidence that we 
would like given the current state of the release process.

Please do not hesitate in reaching out if you have any questions or concerns.

Thanks, everyone for your help and understanding and thanks a lot to all of you 
for your great work!

Cheers from cloudy London,
Pablo Galindo Salgado