Reword paragraph on specific value for Py_LIMITED_API (GH-26101) (GH-26123)
(cherry picked from commit ddd30b2dd207c3c963874f0644cdff2ee5989575)
Co-authored-by: Petr Viktorin <encukou@gmail.com>
diff --git a/Doc/c-api/stable.rst b/Doc/c-api/stable.rst
index 2f67b09..4ae20e9 100644
--- a/Doc/c-api/stable.rst
+++ b/Doc/c-api/stable.rst
@@ -41,22 +41,22 @@
.. c:macro:: Py_LIMITED_API
- Define this macro ``Py_LIMITED_API`` before including ``Python.h`` to
- opt in to only use the Limited API.
+ Define this macro before including ``Python.h`` to opt in to only use
+ the Limited API, and to select the Limited API version.
- Defining ``Py_LIMITED_API`` to ``3`` will limit the available API so that
- the extension will work without recompilation with all Python 3.x releases
- (x>=2) on the particular :ref:`platform <stable-abi-platform>`.
+ Define ``Py_LIMITED_API`` to the value of :c:data:`PY_VERSION_HEX`
+ corresponding to the lowest Python version your extension supports.
+ The extension will work without recompilation with all Python 3 releases
+ from the specified one onward, and can use Limited API introduced up to that
+ version.
- Defining ``Py_LIMITED_API`` to a value of :c:data:`PY_VERSION_HEX` will
- limit the available API so that the extension will work without
- recompilation with all Python 3 releases from the specified one.
- This will allow using additional API introduced up to this version,
- but the extension will lose compatibility with earlier Python versions.
Rather than using the ``PY_VERSION_HEX`` macro directly, hardcode a minimum
minor version (e.g. ``0x030A0000`` for Python 3.10) for stability when
compiling with future Python versions.
+ You can also define ``Py_LIMITED_API`` to ``3``. This works the same as
+ ``0x03020000`` (Python 3.2, the version that introduced Limited API).
+
On Windows, extensions that use the Stable ABI should be linked against
``python3.dll`` rather than a version-specific library such as
``python39.dll``.