[python-committers] "Gratuitous"? incompatibilities in the "fix only" releases

[Jason R. Coombs]

For reference, a similar bug fix also introduced incompatibilities with the Chishop service: http://bugs.python.org/issue23899


On Jul 29, 2015, at 12:06, Jesus Cea <jcea at jcea.es<mailto:jcea at jcea.es>> wrote:

Yesterday I upgraded one of my computer to 2.7.10 and a program working
for years failed.

The problem is this:

"""
http=httplib.HTTPConnection("127.0.0.1",8081)
http.request("GET","/XXXXX/%f" %last_t, "", \
 {"Authorization":"Basic %s" %base64.encodestring("%s:%s" %(a,b))})
"""

base64.encodestring() creates base64 encoding with a final '\n'. This
used to work until 2.7.9 but 2.7.10 if failing now with an exception
about an "illegal character" in a header.

I know that that code is faulty and I should drop the final '\n' or just
use "base64.b64encode()" (my current fix). The point, thought, it that
this code used to work in previous 2.7 releases but it is failing under
2.7.10.

This incompatible change will be released in 3.4.4 too.

I agree that new code is better, no argument here. My program was
incorrect, sure. But I was under the impression that backwards
incompatible code was forbidden in minor releases, except for very
critical reasons (like the HTTPS security default backported to 2.7). I
think that breaking working code during minor updates is risky and
breaks user/programmer expectations.

The change was done in <https://bugs.python.org/issue22928>.

I think the change is the way to go, I don't ask for a revert (since
2.7.10 is already in the wild I want to keep it too in future 3.4.4) but
I am interested in knowing the official statement of committers about
backwards incompatible changes in minor releases for my own future
reference.

Sorry if this email seems confrontational. Not my intention, but my
English is getting worse by the day :-). This is an inquiry about
policy, not an attack.

Thanks!

--
Jesús Cea Avión                         _/_/      _/_/_/        _/_/_/
jcea at jcea.es<mailto:jcea at jcea.es> - http://www.jcea.es/     _/_/    _/_/  _/_/    _/_/  _/_/
Twitter: @jcea                        _/_/    _/_/          _/_/_/_/_/
jabber / xmpp:jcea at jabber.org  _/_/  _/_/    _/_/          _/_/  _/_/
"Things are not so easy"      _/_/  _/_/    _/_/  _/_/    _/_/  _/_/
"My name is Dump, Core Dump"   _/_/_/        _/_/_/      _/_/  _/_/
"El amor es poner tu felicidad en la felicidad de otro" - Leibniz

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