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Python 3.6.8rc1

Release Date: Dec. 11, 2018

Python 3.6.8rc1 is a release candidate preview of the eighth and last maintenance release of Python 3.6. The Python 3.6 series contains many new features and optimizations.

Note

Python 3.7 is now released and is the latest feature release of Python 3. Get the latest release of 3.7.x here. Python 3.6.8 is planned to be the last bugfix release for 3.6.x. Following the release of 3.6.8, we plan to provide security fixes for Python 3.6 as needed through 2021, five years following its initial release.

Among the new major new features in Python 3.6 are:

  • PEP 468, Preserving Keyword Argument Order
  • PEP 487, Simpler customization of class creation
  • PEP 495, Local Time Disambiguation
  • PEP 498, Literal String Formatting
  • PEP 506, Adding A Secrets Module To The Standard Library
  • PEP 509, Add a private version to dict
  • PEP 515, Underscores in Numeric Literals
  • PEP 519, Adding a file system path protocol
  • PEP 520, Preserving Class Attribute Definition Order
  • PEP 523, Adding a frame evaluation API to CPython
  • PEP 524, Make os.urandom() blocking on Linux (during system startup)
  • PEP 525, Asynchronous Generators (provisional)
  • PEP 526, Syntax for Variable Annotations (provisional)
  • PEP 528, Change Windows console encoding to UTF-8
  • PEP 529, Change Windows filesystem encoding to UTF-8
  • PEP 530, Asynchronous Comprehensions

Please see What’s New In Python 3.6 for more information.

More resources

Windows users

  • The binaries for AMD64 will also work on processors that implement the Intel 64 architecture. (Also known as the "x64" architecture, and formerly known as both "EM64T" and "x86-64".)
  • If installing Python 3.6 as a non-privileged user, you may need to escalate to administrator privileges to install an update to your C runtime libraries.
  • There are now "web-based" installers for Windows platforms; the installer will download the needed software components at installation time.
  • There are redistributable zip files containing the Windows builds, making it easy to redistribute Python as part of another software package. Please see the documentation regarding Embedded Distribution for more information.

macOS users

  • For Python 3.6 releases, we provide two binary installer options for download. The default variant is 64-bit-only and works on macOS 10.9 (Mavericks) and later systems. We also continue to provide a 64-bit/32-bit variant that works on all versions of macOS from 10.6 (Snow Leopard) on. As of 3.6.8rc1, both variants now come with batteries-included versions oF Tcl/Tk 8.6 for users of IDLE and other tkinter-based GUI applications; third-party and system versions of Tcl/Tk are no longer used. Consider using the 10.9 64-bit-only installer variant, unless you are building Python applications that also need to work on older macOS systems. Binary extension modules (including wheels) built for earlier versions of 3.6.x with the 10.6 variant should continue to work with either 3.6.8 variant without recompilation.
  • Both python.org installer variants include private copies of OpenSSL 1.0.2. Please carefully read the Important Information displayed during installation for information about SSL/TLS certificate validation and the Install Certificates.command.

Full Changelog

Files

Version Operating System Description MD5 Sum File Size GPG
Gzipped source tarball Source release 34cd018f6d4ee3e51071bd32e9a17146 21.9 MB SIG
XZ compressed source tarball Source release ba218ed84fa590434a8d8565f32f2c29 16.4 MB SIG
macOS 64-bit installer macOS for OS X 10.9 and later 36cbff8077ff886619f7a17099c71dd5 25.9 MB SIG
macOS 64-bit/32-bit installer macOS for Mac OS X 10.6 and later 1d56a1caa1afd6e6ab525b2faecb5740 31.8 MB SIG
Windows help file Windows 50efdbca7d8c868e922864103f0ef5a3 5.3 MB SIG
Windows x86 embeddable zip file Windows 1be51e4730d1d44488ed9442fcc5603c 6.1 MB SIG
Windows x86 executable installer Windows ed21608ff5a5b60eb933bd6b24d59279 27.0 MB SIG
Windows x86 web-based installer Windows 782b3df069a6ec6f92d09938c5d2a379 1.2 MB SIG
Windows x86-64 embeddable zip file Windows for AMD64/EM64T/x64 2b669a13361d04f4acf1113bf25d3f98 6.9 MB SIG
Windows x86-64 executable installer Windows for AMD64/EM64T/x64 811d870f227142a19e347cdd37fc6a0b 28.0 MB SIG
Windows x86-64 web-based installer Windows for AMD64/EM64T/x64 00352454af164d53db8a066764252bc1 1.3 MB SIG