Python Deprecation

Status: Approved
Last Updated: 2024-10-09
Objective: Our approach for deprecating support for Python releases.

Context & Problem Statement

Over time Python releases progress through a defined development cycle:

feature: new features, bugfixes, and security fixes are accepted.
prerelease: feature fixes, bugfixes, and security fixes are accepted for the upcoming feature release.
bugfix: bugfixes and security fixes are accepted, new binaries are still released. (Also called maintenance mode or stable release)
security: only security fixes are accepted and no more binaries are released, but new source-only versions can be released
end-of-life: release cycle is frozen; no further changes can be pushed to it.

This document deals with how we treat end-of-life Python versions that we've previously supported in things like our Python SDK atPython

At the time of writing Python 3.13 has just been released as stable, meaning that Python 3.8 is now end-of-life. atPython has supported Python from 3.8.1

Goals

Articulate an approach that balances customer expectations for continuing support with the practicalities of dealing with software that has passed end of life.

Non-goals

Considered Options

Immediate deprecation of end-of-life versions

We would immediately remove old Python versions from testing, and bump pyproject.toml to specify the oldest version getting security fixes.

Announced grace period

When a Python version becomes end of life we will announce a grace period (say 6 months) during which we will still attempt best efforts support.

That best efforts support will be conditional upon key dependencies continuing to support the end-of-life version.

Proposal Summary

A 6 month grace period.

Proposal in Detail

When a release reaches end-of-life we will post a note on the accompanying README.md to declare the grace period. Following the end of the grace period the end-of-life version will be removed from the test matrix and the package will be bumped to require the oldest security fixes version.

Expected Consequences

We will have periods where there is a new bugfix release added to our test matrix without the old end-of-life version being removed, which will extend the time taken for tests to run (and the likelyhood of flake failures).

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