Doc/whatsnew/3.10.rst

****************************
  What's New In Python 3.10
****************************

:Release: |release|
:Date: |today|

.. Rules for maintenance:

   * Anyone can add text to this document.  Do not spend very much time
   on the wording of your changes, because your text will probably
   get rewritten to some degree.

   * The maintainer will go through Misc/NEWS periodically and add
   changes; it's therefore more important to add your changes to
   Misc/NEWS than to this file.

   * This is not a complete list of every single change; completeness
   is the purpose of Misc/NEWS.  Some changes I consider too small
   or esoteric to include.  If such a change is added to the text,
   I'll just remove it.  (This is another reason you shouldn't spend
   too much time on writing your addition.)

   * If you want to draw your new text to the attention of the
   maintainer, add 'XXX' to the beginning of the paragraph or
   section.

   * It's OK to just add a fragmentary note about a change.  For
   example: "XXX Describe the transmogrify() function added to the
   socket module."  The maintainer will research the change and
   write the necessary text.

   * You can comment out your additions if you like, but it's not
   necessary (especially when a final release is some months away).

   * Credit the author of a patch or bugfix.   Just the name is
   sufficient; the e-mail address isn't necessary.

   * It's helpful to add the bug/patch number as a comment:

   XXX Describe the transmogrify() function added to the socket
   module.
   (Contributed by P.Y. Developer in :issue:`12345`.)

   This saves the maintainer the effort of going through the Mercurial log
   when researching a change.

This article explains the new features in Python 3.10, compared to 3.9.

For full details, see the :ref:`changelog <changelog>`.

.. note::

   Prerelease users should be aware that this document is currently in draft
   form. It will be updated substantially as Python 3.10 moves towards release,
   so it's worth checking back even after reading earlier versions.


Summary -- Release highlights
=============================

.. This section singles out the most important changes in Python 3.10.
   Brevity is key.


.. PEP-sized items next.



New Features
============

.. _whatsnew310-pep563:

PEP 563: Postponed Evaluation of Annotations Becomes Default
------------------------------------------------------------

In Python 3.7, postponed evaluation of annotations was added,
to be enabled with a ``from __future__ import annotations``
directive.  In 3.10 this became the default behavior, even
without that future directive.  With this being default, all
annotations stored in :attr:`__annotations__` will be strings.
If needed, annotations can be resolved at runtime using
:func:`typing.get_type_hints`.  See :pep:`563` for a full
description.  Also, the :func:`inspect.signature` will try to
resolve types from now on, and when it fails it will fall back to
showing the string annotations.  (Contributed by Batuhan Taskaya
in :issue:`38605`.)

* The :class:`int` type has a new method :meth:`int.bit_count`, returning the
  number of ones in the binary expansion of a given integer, also known
  as the population count. (Contributed by Niklas Fiekas in :issue:`29882`.)

* The views returned by :meth:`dict.keys`, :meth:`dict.values` and
  :meth:`dict.items` now all have a ``mapping`` attribute that gives a
  :class:`types.MappingProxyType` object wrapping the original
  dictionary. (Contributed by Dennis Sweeney in :issue:`40890`.)

* :pep:`618`: The :func:`zip` function now has an optional ``strict`` flag, used
  to require that all the iterables have an equal length.

PEP 613: TypeAlias Annotation
-----------------------------

:pep:`484` introduced the concept of type aliases, only requiring them to be
top-level unannotated assignments. This simplicity sometimes made it difficult
for type checkers to distinguish between type aliases and ordinary assignments,
especially when forward references or invalid types were involved. Compare::

   StrCache = 'Cache[str]'  # a type alias
   LOG_PREFIX = 'LOG[DEBUG]'  # a module constant

Now the :mod:`typing` module has a special annotation :data:`TypeAlias` to
declare type aliases more explicitly::

   StrCache: TypeAlias = 'Cache[str]'  # a type alias
   LOG_PREFIX = 'LOG[DEBUG]'  # a module constant

See :pep:`613` for more details.

(Contributed by Mikhail Golubev in :issue:`41923`.)

PEP 604: New Type Union Operator
--------------------------------

A new type union operator was introduced which enables the syntax ``X | Y``.
This provides a cleaner way of expressing 'either type X or type Y' instead of
using :data:`typing.Union`, especially in type hints (annotations).

In previous versions of Python, to apply a type hint for functions accepting
arguments of multiple types, :data:`typing.Union` was used::

   def square(number: Union[int, float]) -> Union[int, float]:
       return number ** 2


Type hints can now be written in a more succinct manner::

   def square(number: int | float) -> int | float:
       return number ** 2


See :pep:`604` for more details.

(Contributed by Maggie Moss and Philippe Prados in :issue:`41428`.)

Other Language Changes
======================

* Builtin and extension functions that take integer arguments no longer accept
  :class:`~decimal.Decimal`\ s, :class:`~fractions.Fraction`\ s and other
  objects that can be converted to integers only with a loss (e.g. that have
  the :meth:`~object.__int__` method but do not have the
  :meth:`~object.__index__` method).
  (Contributed by Serhiy Storchaka in :issue:`37999`.)

* Assignment expressions can now be used unparenthesized within set literals
  and set comprehensions, as well as in sequence indexes (but not slices).


New Modules
===========

* None yet.


Improved Modules
================

base64
------

Add :func:`base64.b32hexencode` and :func:`base64.b32hexdecode` to support the
Base32 Encoding with Extended Hex Alphabet.

codecs
------

Add a :func:`codecs.unregister` function to unregister a codec search function.
(Contributed by Hai Shi in :issue:`41842`.)

collections.abc
---------------

The ``__args__`` of the :ref:`parameterized generic <types-genericalias>` for
:class:`collections.abc.Callable` are now consistent with :data:`typing.Callable`.
:class:`collections.abc.Callable` generic now flattens type parameters, similar
to what :data:`typing.Callable` currently does.  This means that
``collections.abc.Callable[[int, str], str]`` will have ``__args__`` of
``(int, str, str)``; previously this was ``([int, str], str)``.  To allow this
change, :class:`types.GenericAlias` can now be subclassed, and a subclass will
be returned when subscripting the :class:`collections.abc.Callable` type.  Note
that a :exc:`TypeError` may be raised for invalid forms of parameterizing
:class:`collections.abc.Callable` which may have passed silently in Python 3.9.
(Contributed by Ken Jin in :issue:`42195`.)

contextlib
----------

Add a :func:`contextlib.aclosing` context manager to safely close async generators
and objects representing asynchronously released resources.
(Contributed by Joongi Kim and John Belmonte in :issue:`41229`.)

Add asynchronous context manager support to :func:`contextlib.nullcontext`.
(Contributed by Tom Gringauz in :issue:`41543`.)

curses
------

The extended color functions added in ncurses 6.1 will be used transparently
by :func:`curses.color_content`, :func:`curses.init_color`,
:func:`curses.init_pair`, and :func:`curses.pair_content`. A new function,
:func:`curses.has_extended_color_support`, indicates whether extended color
support is provided by the underlying ncurses library.
(Contributed by Jeffrey Kintscher and Hans Petter Jansson in :issue:`36982`.)

doctest
-------

When a module does not define ``__loader__``, fall back to ``__spec__.loader``.
(Contributed by Brett Cannon in :issue:`42133`.)

encodings
---------
:func:`encodings.normalize_encoding` now ignores non-ASCII characters.
(Contributed by Hai Shi in :issue:`39337`.)

glob
----

Added the *root_dir* and *dir_fd* parameters in :func:`~glob.glob` and
:func:`~glob.iglob` which allow to specify the root directory for searching.
(Contributed by Serhiy Storchaka in :issue:`38144`.)

inspect
-------

When a module does not define ``__loader__``, fall back to ``__spec__.loader``.
(Contributed by Brett Cannon in :issue:`42133`.)

Added *globalns* and *localns* parameters in :func:`~inspect.signature` and
:meth:`inspect.Signature.from_callable` to retrieve the annotations in given
local and global namespaces.
(Contributed by Batuhan Taskaya in :issue:`41960`.)

linecache
---------

When a module does not define ``__loader__``, fall back to ``__spec__.loader``.
(Contributed by Brett Cannon in :issue:`42133`.)

os
--

Added :func:`os.cpu_count()` support for VxWorks RTOS.
(Contributed by Peixing Xin in :issue:`41440`.)

Added a new function :func:`os.eventfd` and related helpers to wrap the
``eventfd2`` syscall on Linux.
(Contributed by Christian Heimes in :issue:`41001`.)

Added :func:`os.splice()` that allows to move data between two file
descriptors without copying between kernel address space and user
address space, where one of the file descriptors must refer to a
pipe. (Contributed by Pablo Galindo in :issue:`41625`.)

pathlib
-------

Added slice support to :attr:`PurePath.parents <pathlib.PurePath.parents>`.
(Contributed by Joshua Cannon in :issue:`35498`)

Added negative indexing support to :attr:`PurePath.parents
<pathlib.PurePath.parents>`.
(Contributed by Yaroslav Pankovych in :issue:`21041`)

platform
--------

Added :func:`platform.freedesktop_os_release()` to retrieve operation system
identification from `freedesktop.org os-release
<https://www.freedesktop.org/software/systemd/man/os-release.html>`_ standard file.
(Contributed by Christian Heimes in :issue:`28468`)

py_compile
----------

Added ``--quiet`` option to command-line interface of :mod:`py_compile`.
(Contributed by Gregory Schevchenko in :issue:`38731`.)

shelve
------

The :mod:`shelve` module now uses :data:`pickle.DEFAULT_PROTOCOL` by default
instead of :mod:`pickle` protocol ``3`` when creating shelves.
(Contributed by Zackery Spytz in :issue:`34204`.)

site
----

When a module does not define ``__loader__``, fall back to ``__spec__.loader``.
(Contributed by Brett Cannon in :issue:`42133`.)

socket
------

The exception :exc:`socket.timeout` is now an alias of :exc:`TimeoutError`.
(Contributed by Christian Heimes in :issue:`42413`.)

sys
---

Add :data:`sys.orig_argv` attribute: the list of the original command line
arguments passed to the Python executable.
(Contributed by Victor Stinner in :issue:`23427`.)

threading
---------

Added :func:`threading.gettrace` and :func:`threading.getprofile` to
retrieve the functions set by :func:`threading.settrace` and
:func:`threading.setprofile` respectively.
(Contributed by Mario Corchero in :issue:`42251`.)

Add :data:`threading.__excepthook__` to allow retrieving the original value
of :func:`threading.excepthook` in case it is set to a broken or a different
value.
(Contributed by Mario Corchero in :issue:`42308`.)

traceback
---------

The :func:`~traceback.format_exception`,
:func:`~traceback.format_exception_only`, and
:func:`~traceback.print_exception` functions can now take an exception object
as a positional-only argument.
(Contributed by Zackery Spytz and Matthias Bussonnier in :issue:`26389`.)

types
-----

Reintroduced the :data:`types.EllipsisType`, :data:`types.NoneType`
and :data:`types.NotImplementedType` classes, providing a new set
of types readily interpretable by type checkers.
(Contributed by Bas van Beek in :issue:`41810`.)

typing
------

The behavior of :class:`typing.Literal` was changed to conform with :pep:`586`
and to match the behavior of static type checkers specified in the PEP.

1. ``Literal`` now de-duplicates parameters.
2. Equality comparisons between ``Literal`` objects are now order independent.
3. ``Literal`` comparisons now respects types.  For example,
   ``Literal[0] == Literal[False]`` previously evaluated to ``True``.  It is
   now ``False``.  To support this change, the internally used type cache now
   supports differentiating types.
4. ``Literal`` objects will now raise a :exc:`TypeError` exception during
   equality comparisons if one of their parameters are not :term:`immutable`.
   Note that declaring ``Literal`` with mutable parameters will not throw
   an error::

      >>> from typing import Literal
      >>> Literal[{0}]
      >>> Literal[{0}] == Literal[{False}]
      Traceback (most recent call last):
        File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module>
      TypeError: unhashable type: 'set'

(Contributed by Yurii Karabas in :issue:`42345`.)

unittest
--------

Add new method :meth:`~unittest.TestCase.assertNoLogs` to complement the
existing :meth:`~unittest.TestCase.assertLogs`. (Contributed by Kit Yan Choi
in :issue:`39385`.)

xml
---

Add a :class:`~xml.sax.handler.LexicalHandler` class to the
:mod:`xml.sax.handler` module.
(Contributed by Jonathan Gossage and Zackery Spytz in :issue:`35018`.)

zipimport
---------
Add methods related to :pep:`451`: :meth:`~zipimport.zipimporter.find_spec`,
:meth:`zipimport.zipimporter.create_module`, and
:meth:`zipimport.zipimporter.exec_module`.
(Contributed by Brett Cannon in :issue:`42131`.


Optimizations
=============

* Constructors :func:`str`, :func:`bytes` and :func:`bytearray` are now faster
  (around 30--40% for small objects).
  (Contributed by Serhiy Storchaka in :issue:`41334`.)

* The :mod:`runpy` module now imports fewer modules.
  The ``python3 -m module-name`` command startup time is 1.3x faster in
  average.
  (Contributed by Victor Stinner in :issue:`41006`.)

* The ``LOAD_ATTR`` instruction now uses new "per opcode cache" mechanism.
  It is about 36% faster now.  (Contributed by Pablo Galindo and Yury Selivanov
  in :issue:`42093`, based on ideas implemented originally in PyPy and MicroPython.)

* When building Python with ``--enable-optimizations`` now
  ``-fno-semantic-interposition`` is added to both the compile and link line.
  This speeds builds of the Python interpreter created with ``--enable-shared``
  with ``gcc`` by up to 30%. See `this article
  <https://developers.redhat.com/blog/2020/06/25/red-hat-enterprise-linux-8-2-brings-faster-python-3-8-run-speeds/>`_
  for more details. (Contributed by Victor Stinner and Pablo Galindo in
  :issue:`38980`.)


* Function parameters and their annotations are no longer computed at runtime,
  but rather at compilation time.  They are stored as a tuple of strings at the
  bytecode level.  It is now around 100% faster to create a function with parameter
  annotations.  (Contributed by Yurii Karabas and Inada Naoki in :issue:`42202`)

Deprecated
==========

* Starting in this release, there will be a concerted effort to begin
  cleaning up old import semantics that were kept for Python 2.7
  compatibility. Specifically,
  :meth:`~importlib.abc.PathEntryFinder.find_loader`/:meth:`~importlib.abc.Finder.find_module`
  (superseded by :meth:`~importlib.abc.Finder.find_spec`),
  :meth:`~importlib.abc.Loader.load_module`
  (superseded by :meth:`~importlib.abc.Loader.exec_module`),
  :meth:`~importlib.abc.Loader.module_repr` (which the import system
  takes care of for you), the ``__package__`` attribute
  (superseded by ``__spec__.parent``), the ``__loader__`` attribute
  (superseded by ``__spec__.loader``), and the ``__cached__`` attribute
  (superseded by ``__spec__.cached``) will slowly be removed (as well
  as other classes and methods in :mod:`importlib`).
  :exc:`ImportWarning` and/or :exc:`DeprecationWarning` will be raised
  as appropriate to help identify code which needs updating during
  this transition.

* The various ``load_module()`` methods of :mod:`importlib` have been
  documented as deprecated since Python 3.6, but will now also trigger
  a :exc:`DeprecationWarning`. Use
  :meth:`~importlib.abc.Loader.exec_module` instead.
  (Contributed by Brett Cannon in :issue:`26131`.)

* :meth:`zimport.zipimporter.load_module` has been deprecated in
  preference for :meth:`~zipimport.zipimporter.exec_module`.
  (Contributed by Brett Cannon in :issue:`26131`.)

* The use of :meth:`~importlib.abc.Loader.load_module` by the import
  system now triggers an :exc:`ImportWarning` as
  :meth:`~importlib.abc.Loader.exec_module` is preferred.
  (Contributed by Brett Cannon in :issue:`26131`.)

* ``sqlite3.OptimizedUnicode`` has been undocumented and obsolete since Python
  3.3, when it was made an alias to :class:`str`.  It is now deprecated,
  scheduled for removal in Python 3.12.
  (Contributed by Erlend E. Aasland in :issue:`42264`.)


Removed
=======

* Removed special methods ``__int__``, ``__float__``, ``__floordiv__``,
  ``__mod__``, ``__divmod__``, ``__rfloordiv__``, ``__rmod__`` and
  ``__rdivmod__`` of the :class:`complex` class.  They always raised
  a :exc:`TypeError`.
  (Contributed by Serhiy Storchaka in :issue:`41974`.)

* The ``ParserBase.error()`` method from the private and undocumented ``_markupbase``
  module has been removed.  :class:`html.parser.HTMLParser` is the only subclass of
  ``ParserBase`` and its ``error()`` implementation has already been removed in
  Python 3.5.
  (Contributed by Berker Peksag in :issue:`31844`.)

* Removed the ``unicodedata.ucnhash_CAPI`` attribute which was an internal
  PyCapsule object. The related private ``_PyUnicode_Name_CAPI`` structure was
  moved to the internal C API.
  (Contributed by Victor Stinner in :issue:`42157`.)

* Removed the ``parser`` module, which was deprecated in 3.9 due to the
  switch to the new PEG parser, as well as all the C source and header files
  that were only being used by the old parser, including ``node.h``, ``parser.h``,
  ``graminit.h`` and ``grammar.h``.

* Removed the Public C API functions :c:func:`PyParser_SimpleParseStringFlags`,
  :c:func:`PyParser_SimpleParseStringFlagsFilename`,
  :c:func:`PyParser_SimpleParseFileFlags` and :c:func:`PyNode_Compile`
  that were deprecated in 3.9 due to the switch to the new PEG parser.

* Removed the ``formatter`` module, which was deprecated in Python 3.4.
  It is somewhat obsolete, little used, and not tested. It was originally
  scheduled to be removed in Python 3.6, but such removals were delayed until
  after Python 2.7 EOL. Existing users should copy whatever classes they use
  into their code.
  (Contributed by Dong-hee Na and Terry J. Reedy in :issue:`42299`.)

* Removed the :c:func:`PyModule_GetWarningsModule` function that was useless
  now due to the _warnings module was converted to a builtin module in 2.6.
  (Contributed by Hai Shi in :issue:`42599`.)


Porting to Python 3.10
======================

This section lists previously described changes and other bugfixes
that may require changes to your code.


Changes in the Python API
-------------------------

* The *etype* parameters of the :func:`~traceback.format_exception`,
  :func:`~traceback.format_exception_only`, and
  :func:`~traceback.print_exception` functions in the :mod:`traceback` module
  have been renamed to *exc*.
  (Contributed by Zackery Spytz and Matthias Bussonnier in :issue:`26389`.)

* :mod:`atexit`: At Python exit, if a callback registered with
  :func:`atexit.register` fails, its exception is now logged. Previously, only
  some exceptions were logged, and the last exception was always silently
  ignored.
  (Contributed by Victor Stinner in :issue:`42639`.)

* :class:`collections.abc.Callable` generic now flattens type parameters, similar
  to what :data:`typing.Callable` currently does.  This means that
  ``collections.abc.Callable[[int, str], str]`` will have ``__args__`` of
  ``(int, str, str)``; previously this was ``([int, str], str)``.  Code which
  accesses the arguments via :func:`typing.get_args` or ``__args__`` need to account
  for this change.  Furthermore, :exc:`TypeError` may be raised for invalid forms
  of parameterizing :class:`collections.abc.Callable` which may have passed
  silently in Python 3.9.
  (Contributed by Ken Jin in :issue:`42195`.)

* :meth:`socket.htons` and :meth:`socket.ntohs` now raise :exc:`OverflowError`
  instead of :exc:`DeprecationWarning` if the given parameter will not fit in
  a 16-bit unsigned integer.
  (Contributed by Erlend E. Aasland in :issue:`42393`.)


CPython bytecode changes
========================

* The ``MAKE_FUNCTION`` instruction accepts tuple of strings as annotations
  instead of dictionary.
  (Contributed by Yurii Karabas and Inada Naoki in :issue:`42202`)

Build Changes
=============


* The C99 functions :c:func:`snprintf` and :c:func:`vsnprintf` are now required
  to build Python.
  (Contributed by Victor Stinner in :issue:`36020`.)

* :mod:`sqlite3` requires SQLite 3.7.3 or higher.
  (Contributed by Sergey Fedoseev and Erlend E. Aasland :issue:`40744`.)

* The :mod:`atexit` module must now always be built as a built-in module.
  (Contributed by Victor Stinner in :issue:`42639`.)

* Added ``--disable-test-modules`` option to the ``configure`` script:
  don't build nor install test modules.
  (Contributed by Xavier de Gaye, Thomas Petazzoni and Peixing Xin in :issue:`27640`.)


C API Changes
=============

New Features
------------

* The result of :c:func:`PyNumber_Index` now always has exact type :class:`int`.
  Previously, the result could have been an instance of a subclass of ``int``.
  (Contributed by Serhiy Storchaka in :issue:`40792`.)

* Add a new :c:member:`~PyConfig.orig_argv` member to the :c:type:`PyConfig`
  structure: the list of the original command line arguments passed to the
  Python executable.
  (Contributed by Victor Stinner in :issue:`23427`.)

* The :c:func:`PyDateTime_DATE_GET_TZINFO` and
  :c:func:`PyDateTime_TIME_GET_TZINFO` macros have been added for accessing
  the ``tzinfo`` attributes of :class:`datetime.datetime` and
  :class:`datetime.time` objects.
  (Contributed by Zackery Spytz in :issue:`30155`.)

* Add a :c:func:`PyCodec_Unregister` function to unregister a codec
  search function.
  (Contributed by Hai Shi in :issue:`41842`.)

* The :c:func:`PyIter_Send` function was added to allow
  sending value into iterator without raising ``StopIteration`` exception.
  (Contributed by Vladimir Matveev in :issue:`41756`.)

* Added :c:func:`PyUnicode_AsUTF8AndSize` to the limited C API.
  (Contributed by Alex Gaynor in :issue:`41784`.)

* Added :c:func:`PyModule_AddObjectRef` function: similar to
  :c:func:`PyModule_AddObject` but don't steal a reference to the value on
  success.
  (Contributed by Victor Stinner in :issue:`1635741`.)

* Added :c:func:`Py_NewRef` and :c:func:`Py_XNewRef` functions to increment the
  reference count of an object and return the object.
  (Contributed by Victor Stinner in :issue:`42262`.)

* The :c:func:`PyType_FromSpecWithBases` and :c:func:`PyType_FromModuleAndSpec`
  functions now accept a single class as the *bases* argument.
  (Contributed by Serhiy Storchaka in :issue:`42423`.)

* The :c:func:`PyType_FromModuleAndSpec` function now accepts NULL ``tp_doc``
  slot.
  (Contributed by Hai Shi in :issue:`41832`.)

* The :c:func:`PyType_GetSlot` function can accept static types.
  (Contributed by Hai Shi and Petr Viktorin in :issue:`41073`.)


Porting to Python 3.10
----------------------

* The ``PY_SSIZE_T_CLEAN`` macro must now be defined to use
  :c:func:`PyArg_ParseTuple` and :c:func:`Py_BuildValue` formats which use
  ``#``: ``es#``, ``et#``, ``s#``, ``u#``, ``y#``, ``z#``, ``U#`` and ``Z#``.
  See :ref:`Parsing arguments and building values
  <arg-parsing>` and the :pep:`353`.
  (Contributed by Victor Stinner in :issue:`40943`.)

* Since :c:func:`Py_REFCNT()` is changed to the inline static function,
  ``Py_REFCNT(obj) = new_refcnt`` must be replaced with ``Py_SET_REFCNT(obj, new_refcnt)``:
  see :c:func:`Py_SET_REFCNT()` (available since Python 3.9). For backward
  compatibility, this macro can be used::

      #if PY_VERSION_HEX < 0x030900A4
      #  define Py_SET_REFCNT(obj, refcnt) ((Py_REFCNT(obj) = (refcnt)), (void)0)
      #endif

  (Contributed by Victor Stinner in :issue:`39573`.)

* Calling :c:func:`PyDict_GetItem` without :term:`GIL` held had been allowed
  for historical reason. It is no longer allowed.
  (Contributed by Victor Stinner in :issue:`40839`.)

* ``PyUnicode_FromUnicode(NULL, size)`` and ``PyUnicode_FromStringAndSize(NULL, size)``
  raise ``DeprecationWarning`` now.  Use :c:func:`PyUnicode_New` to allocate
  Unicode object without initial data.
  (Contributed by Inada Naoki in :issue:`36346`.)

* The private ``_PyUnicode_Name_CAPI`` structure of the PyCapsule API
  ``unicodedata.ucnhash_CAPI`` has been moved to the internal C API.
  (Contributed by Victor Stinner in :issue:`42157`.)

* :c:func:`Py_GetPath`, :c:func:`Py_GetPrefix`, :c:func:`Py_GetExecPrefix`,
  :c:func:`Py_GetProgramFullPath`, :c:func:`Py_GetPythonHome` and
  :c:func:`Py_GetProgramName` functions now return ``NULL`` if called before
  :c:func:`Py_Initialize` (before Python is initialized). Use the new
  :ref:`Python Initialization Configuration API <init-config>` to get the
  :ref:`Python Path Configuration.  <init-path-config>`.
  (Contributed by Victor Stinner in :issue:`42260`.)

* :c:func:`PyList_SET_ITEM`, :c:func:`PyTuple_SET_ITEM` and
  :c:func:`PyCell_SET` macros can no longer be used as l-value or r-value.
  For example, ``x = PyList_SET_ITEM(a, b, c)`` and
  ``PyList_SET_ITEM(a, b, c) = x`` now fail with a compiler error. It prevents
  bugs like ``if (PyList_SET_ITEM (a, b, c) < 0) ...`` test.
  (Contributed by Zackery Spytz and Victor Stinner in :issue:`30459`.)

Deprecated
----------

* The ``PyUnicode_InternImmortal()`` function is now deprecated
  and will be removed in Python 3.12: use :c:func:`PyUnicode_InternInPlace`
  instead.
  (Contributed by Victor Stinner in :issue:`41692`.)

Removed
-------

* ``PyObject_AsCharBuffer()``, ``PyObject_AsReadBuffer()``, ``PyObject_CheckReadBuffer()``,
  and ``PyObject_AsWriteBuffer()`` are removed. Please migrate to new buffer protocol;
  :c:func:`PyObject_GetBuffer` and :c:func:`PyBuffer_Release`.
  (Contributed by Inada Naoki in :issue:`41103`.)

* Removed ``Py_UNICODE_str*`` functions manipulating ``Py_UNICODE*`` strings.
  (Contributed by Inada Naoki in :issue:`41123`.)

   * ``Py_UNICODE_strlen``: use :c:func:`PyUnicode_GetLength` or
     :c:macro:`PyUnicode_GET_LENGTH`
   * ``Py_UNICODE_strcat``: use :c:func:`PyUnicode_CopyCharacters` or
     :c:func:`PyUnicode_FromFormat`
   * ``Py_UNICODE_strcpy``, ``Py_UNICODE_strncpy``: use
     :c:func:`PyUnicode_CopyCharacters` or :c:func:`PyUnicode_Substring`
   * ``Py_UNICODE_strcmp``: use :c:func:`PyUnicode_Compare`
   * ``Py_UNICODE_strncmp``: use :c:func:`PyUnicode_Tailmatch`
   * ``Py_UNICODE_strchr``, ``Py_UNICODE_strrchr``: use
     :c:func:`PyUnicode_FindChar`

* Removed ``PyUnicode_GetMax()``. Please migrate to new (:pep:`393`) APIs.
  (Contributed by Inada Naoki in :issue:`41103`.)

* Removed ``PyLong_FromUnicode()``. Please migrate to :c:func:`PyLong_FromUnicodeObject`.
  (Contributed by Inada Naoki in :issue:`41103`.)

* Removed ``PyUnicode_AsUnicodeCopy()``. Please use :c:func:`PyUnicode_AsUCS4Copy` or
  :c:func:`PyUnicode_AsWideCharString`
  (Contributed by Inada Naoki in :issue:`41103`.)

* Removed ``_Py_CheckRecursionLimit`` variable: it has been replaced by
  ``ceval.recursion_limit`` of the :c:type:`PyInterpreterState` structure.
  (Contributed by Victor Stinner in :issue:`41834`.)

* Removed undocumented macros ``Py_ALLOW_RECURSION`` and
  ``Py_END_ALLOW_RECURSION`` and the ``recursion_critical`` field of the
  :c:type:`PyInterpreterState` structure.
  (Contributed by Serhiy Storchaka in :issue:`41936`.)

* Removed the undocumented ``PyOS_InitInterrupts()`` function. Initializing
  Python already implicitly installs signal handlers: see
  :c:member:`PyConfig.install_signal_handlers`.
  (Contributed by Victor Stinner in :issue:`41713`.)