Release Date: July 29, 2003

patch release release which supersedes earlier releases of 2.3.</i> </blockquote>

<blockquote>

<b>Important:</b> This release is vulnerable to the problem described in <a href="/news/security/PSF-2006-001/">security advisory PSF-2006-001</a> "Buffer overrun in repr() of unicode strings in wide unicode builds (UCS-4)". This fix is included in <a href="../2.4.4/">Python 2.4.4</a> and <a href="../2.5/">Python 2.5</a>. If you need to remain with Python 2.3, there's a patch available from the security advisory page.

</blockquote>

<blockquote> <b>Important: 2.3.5 includes a <a href="/news/security/PSF-2005-001/" >security fix</a> for SimpleXMLRPCServer.py.</b> </blockquote>

<p>We are pleased to announce the release of <b>Python 2.3</b> on July 29, 2003. This is a final, stable release, and we recommend Python users upgrade to this version.

<p>Nineteen months in the making, Python 2.3 represents a commitment to stability and improved performance, with a minimum of new language features. Countless bugs and memory leaks have been fixed, many new and updated modules have been added, and the new type/class system introduced in Python 2.2 has been significantly improved. Python 2.3 can be up to 30% faster than Python 2.2.

<p>Please see the separate <a href="bugs">bugs page</a> for known issues and the bug reporting procedure.

<h3>Download the release</h3>

<p><b>Windows</b> users should download the Windows installer, <a href="/ftp/python/2.3/Python-2.3.exe">Python-2.3.exe</a>, run it and follow the friendly instructions on the screen to complete the installation. Windows users may also be interested in Mark Hammond's <a href="http://starship.python.net/crew/mhammond/" >win32all</a>, a collection of Windows-specific extensions including COM support and Pythonwin, an IDE built using Windows components.

<p><b>All others</b> should download <a href="/ftp/python/2.3/Python-2.3.tgz">Python-2.3.tgz</a>, the source archive. Unpack it with "tar -zxvf Python-2.3.tgz". Change to the Python-2.3 directory and run the "./configure", "make", "make install" commands to compile and install Python.

<p><b>Macintosh</b> users can find binaries and source on <!--the <a href="mac.html">Mac page</a> or--> Jack Jansen's <a href="http://homepages.cwi.nl/~jack/macpython/">MacPython page</a>. Mac OS X users who have a C compiler (which comes with the <a href="http://developer.apple.com/tools/macosxtools.html">OS X Developer Tools</a>) can also build from the source tarball below.

<!-- <p><b>Red Hat Linux 7.3, 7.2 and 6.2</b> users can download <a href="rpms.html">RPMs</a>, or build from source. An SRPM is also available for other RPM-based systems, or the source tar-file can be used (see the "rpm" man page for the "-ta" options). -->

<p><a href="http://idlefork.sf.net">IDLEFORK</a> users should take note: Idlefork has been re-merged back into the main Python distribution and takes the place of the old IDLE release.

<h3>What's New?</h3>

<ul>

<li>See the <a href="highlights">highlights</a> of this release.

<p><li>Andrew Kuchling's <a href="/doc/2.3/whatsnew/">What's New in Python 2.3</a> describes the most visible changes since <a href="../2.2.3/">Python 2.2</a> in more detail.

<p><li>A detailed list of the changes is in the <a href="NEWS.txt">release notes</a>, or the <tt>Misc/NEWS</tt> file in the source distribution.

<p><li>For the full list of changes, you can poke around in <a href="http://sourceforge.net/cvs/?group_id=5470">CVS</a>.

<p><li>The PSF's <a href="/psf/press-release/pr20030729">press release</a> announcing 2.3.

</ul>

<h3>Documentation</h3>

<p>The documentation has been updated too:

<ul>

<li><a href="/doc/2.3/">Browse HTML on-line</a>

<li>Download using <a href="/ftp/python/doc/2.3/">HTTP</a>.</li>

</ul>

<p>The <a href="../2.2.3/descrintro">interim documentation for new-style classes</a>, last seen for Python 2.2.3, is still relevant for Python 2.3. In addition, <a href="mro">The Python 2.3 Method Resolution Order</a> is a nice paper by Michele Simionato that explains the C3 MRO algorithm (new in Python 2.3) clearly. (Also available as <a href="mro/mro.txt">reStructured Text</a>. Copied with permission.)

<h3>Files, <a href="md5sum.py">MD5</a> checksums, signatures, and sizes</h3>

<pre> 595620a4769073a812e353597585c4e8 <a href="/ftp/python/2.3/Python-2.3.tgz">Python-2.3.tgz</A> (8436880 bytes, <a href="Python-2.3.tgz.asc">signature</a>) 5763d167f4ab3467455e4728ac5a03ac <a href="/ftp/python/2.3/Python-2.3.exe">Python-2.3.exe</A> (9380742 bytes, <a href="Python-2.3.exe.asc">signature</a>) </pre>

<p>The signatures above were generated with <a href="http://www.gnupg.org">GnuPG</a> using the release manager's (Barry Warsaw) <a href="/download#pubkeys">public key</a> which has a key id of ED9D77D5.

<p>&nbsp;

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