Clarification on 3.12 (pre-GA) ABI Stability

[h-vetinari]

Continuing the discussion from Python 3.12.0rc3 released (honestly the final release candidate I swear!):

@thomas

This release, 3.12.0rc3, is the absolutely last release preview for Python 3.12.

There will be no ABI changes -->from this point forward<-- in the 3.12 series. [my arrows]

I cannot answer in the committers-only topic, but wanted to ask for clarification about the wording here. I’m presuming that “from this point forward” actually refers to rc1 at the latest, or were there any ABI-breaking changes since then? This is relevant as we’re starting to rebuild conda-forge in anticipation of CPython 3.12 (as it happens, based on the ABI of rc2).

[thomas (Thomas Wouters)]

There have been no ABI breakages.

[h-vetinari]

OK, that’s what I was hoping/expecting, thanks! I’d suggest to perhaps adapt the announcement formulation slightly, to make it a bit clearer that there are no ABI breaks anymore after entering the rc-phase (“from this point forward” is only accurate for rc1, and a bit misleading for rc2 etc.)