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Python 3.8.5

Release Date: July 20, 2020

This is the fifth maintenance release of Python 3.8

Note: The release you're looking at is Python 3.8.5, a bugfix release for the legacy 3.8 series. Python 3.11 is now the latest feature release series of Python 3. Get the latest release of 3.11.x here.

3.8.5 has been released out of schedule due to important security content. For details please consult the change log. Please upgrade at your earliest convenience.

Major new features of the 3.8 series, compared to 3.7

  • PEP 572, Assignment expressions
  • PEP 570, Positional-only arguments
  • PEP 587, Python Initialization Configuration (improved embedding)
  • PEP 590, Vectorcall: a fast calling protocol for CPython
  • PEP 578, Runtime audit hooks
  • PEP 574, Pickle protocol 5 with out-of-band data
  • Typing-related: PEP 591 (Final qualifier), PEP 586 (Literal types), and PEP 589 (TypedDict)
  • Parallel filesystem cache for compiled bytecode
  • Debug builds share ABI as release builds
  • f-strings support a handy = specifier for debugging
  • continue is now legal in finally: blocks
  • on Windows, the default asyncio event loop is now ProactorEventLoop
  • on macOS, the spawn start method is now used by default in multiprocessing
  • multiprocessing can now use shared memory segments to avoid pickling costs between processes
  • typed_ast is merged back to CPython
  • LOAD_GLOBAL is now 40% faster
  • pickle now uses Protocol 4 by default, improving performance

There are many other interesting changes, please consult the "What's New" page in the documentation for a full list.

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".)
  • 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 3.8, we provide one installer: 64-bit-only that works on macOS 10.9 (Mavericks) and later systems.
  • Please read the "Important Information" displayed during installation for information about SSL/TLS certificate validation and the running the "Install Certificates.command".

And now for something completely different

Our universe itself keeps on expanding and expanding,
In all of the directions it can whiz;
As fast as it can go, at the speed of light, you know,
Twelve million miles a minute and that's the fastest speed there is.
So remember, when you're feeling very small and insecure,
How amazingly unlikely is your birth;
And pray that there's intelligent life somewhere out in space,
'Cause there's bugger all down here on Earth!

Full Changelog

Files

Version Operating System Description MD5 Sum File Size GPG
Gzipped source tarball Source release e2f52bcf531c8cc94732c0b6ff933ff0 23.0 MB SIG
XZ compressed source tarball Source release 35b5a3d0254c1c59be9736373d429db7 17.2 MB SIG
macOS 64-bit installer macOS for OS X 10.9 and later 2f8a736eeb307a27f1998cfd07f22440 28.8 MB SIG
Windows help file Windows 3079d9cf19ac09d7b3e5eb3fb05581c4 8.1 MB SIG
Windows x86 embeddable zip file Windows bc354669bffd81a4ca14f06817222e50 7.0 MB SIG
Windows x86 executable installer Windows 959873b37b74c1508428596b7f9df151 25.5 MB SIG
Windows x86 web-based installer Windows c813e6671f334a269e669d913b1f9b0d 1.3 MB SIG
Windows x86-64 embeddable zip file Windows for AMD64/EM64T/x64 73bd7aab047b81f83e473efb5d5652a0 7.8 MB SIG
Windows x86-64 executable installer Windows for AMD64/EM64T/x64 0ba2e9ca29b719da6e0b81f7f33f08f6 26.6 MB SIG
Windows x86-64 web-based installer Windows for AMD64/EM64T/x64 eeab52a08398a009c90189248ff43dac 1.3 MB SIG