Release Date: Dec. 19, 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're happy to announce the release of <b>Python 2.3.3 (final)</b> on December 19th, 2003. This is a bug-fix release for Python 2.3 that fixes a number of bugs, including a couple of serious errors with weakrefs and the cyclic garbage collector. There are also a number of fixes to the standard library - see the <a href="NEWS.txt">release notes</a> for details. Python 2.3.3 supersedes the previous <a href="../2.3.2/">Python 2.3.2</a> release.

<p>No new features have been added in Python 2.3.3. The 2.3 series is now in bugfix-only mode.

<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/2.3.3/Python-2.3.3.exe">Python-2.3.3.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>

<p>RPMs suitable for Red Hat/Fedora and source RPMs for other RPM-using operating systems are available from <a href="rpms">the RPMs page</a>.

<p><b>All others</b> should download either <a href="/ftp/python/2.3.3/Python-2.3.3.tgz">Python-2.3.3.tgz</a> or <a href="/ftp/python/2.3.3/Python-2.3.3.tar.bz2">Python-2.3.3.tar.bz2</a>, the source archive. The tar.bz2 is considerably smaller, so get that one if your system has the <a href="http://sources.redhat.com/bzip2/">appropriate tools</a> to deal with it. Unpack it with "tar&nbsp;-zxvf&nbsp;Python-2.3.3.tgz" (or "bzcat&nbsp;Python-2.3.3.tar.bz2&nbsp;|&nbsp;tar&nbsp;-xf&nbsp;-"). Change to the Python-2.3.3 directory and run the "./configure", "make", "make&nbsp;install" commands to compile and install Python. The source archive is also suitable for Windows users who feel the need to build their own version.

<p><b>Warning for Solaris/HP-UX users</b>: Some versions of the Solaris and HP/UX versions of <i>tar(1)</i> report checksum errors and are unable to unpack the Python source tree. This is caused by some pathnames being too long for the vendor's version. Use <a href="http://www.gnu.org/software/tar/tar.html">GNU tar</a> instead.

<p>If you're having trouble building on your system, check the top-level README file for platform-specific tips, or check the <a href="bugs#build">Build Bugs</a> section on the Bugs webpage.

<!--mac <p><b>Macintosh</b> users can find binaries and source on 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. -->

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

<ul>

<p><li>A detailed list of the changes since 2.3.2 is in the <a href="NEWS.txt">release notes</a>, or the file <tt>Misc/NEWS</tt> in the source distribution.

<li>See the <a href="../2.3/highlights">highlights</a> of the Python 2.3 release. As noted, the 2.3.3 release is a bugfix release of 2.3.2, itself a bugfix release of 2.3.

<p><li>The Windows installer now includes the documentation in searchable htmlhelp format, rather than individual HTML files. You can still download the <a href="/ftp/python/doc/2.3.3/">individual HTML files</a>.

<p><li>Andrew Kuchling's <a href="/doc/2.3.3/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>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/pr20031219">press release</a> announcing 2.3.3.

</ul>

<h3>Documentation</h3>

<p>The documentation has been updated too:

<ul>

<li><a href="/doc/2.3.3/">Browse HTML documentation on-line</a></li>

<li>Download using <a href="/ftp/python/doc/2.3.3/">HTTP</a>.

</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 2.3.3. Raymond Hettinger has also written a <a href="http://users.rcn.com/python/download/Descriptor.htm">tutorial on descriptors</a>, introduced in Python 2.2. In addition, <a href="/download/releases/2.3/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="/download/releases/2.3/mro/mro.txt">reStructured Text</a>. Copied with permission.)

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

<pre> 4d16732b1cfccc0ed250956d41463c61 <a href="/ftp/python/2.3.3/Python-2.3.3.tgz">Python-2.3.3.tgz</A> (8491380 bytes, <a href="Python-2.3.3.tgz.asc">signature</a>) 70ada9f65742ab2c77a96bcd6dffd9b1 <a href="/ftp/python/2.3.3/Python-2.3.3.tar.bz2">Python-2.3.3.tar.bz2</A> (7195007 bytes, <a href="Python-2.3.3.tar.bz2.asc">signature</a>) 92b8e2bb82f0589b70ef5afff204da39 <a href="/ftp/python/2.3.3/Python-2.3.3.exe">Python-2.3.3.exe</a> (9557065 bytes, <a href="Python-2.3.3.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 (Anthony Baxter) <a href="/download#pubkeys">public key</a> which has a key id of 6A45C816.

<p>&nbsp;

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