Python 3.9.6

Release date: June 28, 2021

This is the sixth maintenance release of Python 3.9

Note: The release you're looking at is Python 3.9.6, a bugfix release for the legacy 3.9 series. Python 3.11 is now the latest feature release series of Python 3. Get the latest release of 3.11.x here.

There's been 146 commits since 3.9.5 which is a similar amount compared to 3.8 at the same stage of the release cycle. See the changelog for details.

Major new features of the 3.9 series, compared to 3.8

Some of the new major new features and changes in Python 3.9 are:

• PEP 573, Module State Access from C Extension Methods
• PEP 584, Union Operators in dict
• PEP 585, Type Hinting Generics In Standard Collections
• PEP 593, Flexible function and variable annotations
• PEP 602, Python adopts a stable annual release cadence
• PEP 614, Relaxing Grammar Restrictions On Decorators
• PEP 615, Support for the IANA Time Zone Database in the Standard Library
• PEP 616, String methods to remove prefixes and suffixes
• PEP 617, New PEG parser for CPython
• BPO 38379, garbage collection does not block on resurrected objects;
• BPO 38692, os.pidfd_open added that allows process management without races and signals;
• BPO 39926, Unicode support updated to version 13.0.0;
• BPO 1635741, when Python is initialized multiple times in the same process, it does not leak memory anymore;
• A number of Python builtins (range, tuple, set, frozenset, list, dict) are now sped up using PEP 590 vectorcall;
• A number of Python modules (_abc, audioop, _bz2, _codecs, _contextvars, _crypt, _functools, _json, _locale, operator, resource, time, _weakref) now use multiphase initialization as defined by PEP 489;
• A number of standard library modules (audioop, ast, grp, _hashlib, pwd, _posixsubprocess, random, select, struct, termios, zlib) are now using the stable ABI defined by PEP 384.

You can find a more comprehensive list in this release's "What's New" document.

More resources

• Online Documentation
• PEP 596, 3.9 Release Schedule
• Report bugs at https://bugs.python.org.
• Help fund Python and its community.

And Now for Something Completely Different

Interviewer (John Cleese): You know I really enjoy interviewing applicants for this management training course. (knock at door) Come in. (Stig enters) Ah. Come and sit down.
Stig (Graham Chapman): Thank you. (he sits)
Interviewer: (stares at him and starts writing) Would you mind just standing up again for one moment. (Stig stands up) Take a seat.
Stig: I'm sorry?
Interviewer: Take a seat. (Stig does so) Ah! (writes again) Good morning.
Stig: Good morning.
Interviewer: (writes) Tell me why did you say 'good morning' when you know perfectly well that it's afternoon?
Stig: Well, well, you said 'good morning'. Ha, ha.
Interviewer: (shakes head) Good afternoon.
Stig: Ah, good afternoon.
Interviewer: Oh dear. (writes again) Good evening.
Stig: ...Goodbye?
Interviewer: Ha, ha. No. (rings small hand-bell) ... Aren't you going to ask me why I rang the bell? (rings bell again)
Stig: Er why did you ring the bell?
Interviewer: Why do you think I rang the bell? (shouts) Five, four, three, two, one, ZERO!
Stig: Well, I, I...
Interviewer: Too late! (singing) Goodniiight, ding-ding-ding-ding-ding.

Full Changelog