[Python-Dev] Upcoming 2.4.5 and 2.3.7 releases

["Martin v. Löwis"]

Along with the release of 2.5.2, I would also like to release
new versions of 2.3 and 2.4. These will be security-only releases,
and include a few security-relevant bug fixes that are still being
finalized.

As we don't have the infrastructure to produce full releases of 2.3
or 2.4 anymore, this will be a source release only. As such, it
will likely see less testing than other releases, and users will have
more difficulties in obtaining the software for their system - the
releases will be targeted primarily at system vendors who can chose
to include them as security patches in their system updates.

As a consequence, I would like to roll back all changes from the 2.3
and 2.4 branches which aren't security fixes. In specific cases, the
nature of a change might be debatable; clear security fixes are
prevention of memory corruption and interpreter crashes, clear
non-security fixes are documentation and test-suite changes.

For 2.3, there are only few revisions that would be rolled back:
r52798, r52803, r52824, r54342.

For 2.4, the list is longer; all changes on the branch since
r52382 are candidate for roll-back. I would like to prepare
a white-list of patches that should be preserved; if you think
any of the patches committed in the 2.4 branch is a security
fix, please let me know.

Regards,
Martin