Changes from GH-1638 (GH-3575, bpo-28411) are not documented in Porting to Python 3.7

[hroncok]

BPO	33470
Nosy	@vstinner, @ericsnowcurrently, @hroncok

^{Note: these values reflect the state of the issue at the time it was migrated and might not reflect the current state.}

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GitHub fields:

assignee = None
closed_at = <Date 2018-05-15.16:21:58.691>
created_at = <Date 2018-05-12.08:40:06.453>
labels = ['invalid', '3.8', 'docs']
title = 'Changes from python/cpython#45979 (GH-3575, bpo-28411) are not documented in Porting to Python 3.7'
updated_at = <Date 2018-05-31.20:50:32.738>
user = 'https://github.com/hroncok'

bugs.python.org fields:

activity = <Date 2018-05-31.20:50:32.738>
actor = 'ned.deily'
assignee = 'docs@python'
closed = True
closed_date = <Date 2018-05-15.16:21:58.691>
closer = 'vstinner'
components = ['Documentation']
creation = <Date 2018-05-12.08:40:06.453>
creator = 'hroncok'
dependencies = []
files = []
hgrepos = []
issue_num = 33470
keywords = []
message_count = 11.0
messages = ['316421', '316427', '316428', '316443', '316675', '316679', '316686', '317078', '317256', '317287', '318341']
nosy_count = 5.0
nosy_names = ['vstinner', 'docs@python', 'eric.snow', 'pkoning', 'hroncok']
pr_nums = []
priority = None
resolution = 'not a bug'
stage = 'resolved'
status = 'closed'
superseder = None
type = None
url = 'https://bugs.python.org/issue33470'
versions = ['Python 3.8']

[hroncok]

Background: gdb fails to build with Python 3.7 as described in https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1577396

This is due to _PyImport_FixupBuiltin changing it's API. I feel that _underscored functions are probably not guaranteed to not change, however I miss anything about the following changes:

#1638
#3565
#3575

In here:

https://docs.python.org/3.7/whatsnew/3.7.html#porting-to-python-37
(or that page generally)

That page doesn't mention PyInterpreterState at all, so even if you decide that _PyImport_FixupBuiltin doesn't deserve a mention, maybe the general change does.

Thanks

[vstinner]

Is it a release blocker?

[vstinner]

Miro: do you want to work on a pull request?

[hroncok]

The change is a bit beyond my understanding ATM. I might be able to study it and stitch something up, but I'd rather leave it to the author of the change.

[ericsnowcurrently]

Yeah, I added an extra parameter. Since it's an internal API I didn't think anything of it.

[vstinner]

Oh, I'm sorry, I misunderstood the issue. Changes in the *private* API must not be documented. In short, you must not use the private API :-)

If you really have to use the private API, be prepared for incompatible changes in new Python releases. For the gdb issue, gdb should use an #ifdef using PY_VERSION_HEX. Depending on the Python version, the number of parameters changes.

Miro: Let's move the discussion to https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1577396 to see how to fix gdb ;-)

[hroncok]

Sorry for mixing two things here, but I meant that I found out about this because of the private API use in gdb, however nothing from the change is documented on whatsnew at all. This bug was a reaction for #1638 (comment)

[vstinner]

Sorry for mixing two things here, but I meant that I found out about this because of the private API use in gdb, however nothing from the change is documented on whatsnew at all.

It seems like there is at least one change in the public API: the removal of the PyInterpreterState.modules field. Are the members of the PyInterpreterState structure part of the public API?

@eric: do you consider that it should be documented?