gh-159240: Deprecate `__{author,credits,copyright}__` attributes in stdlib modules by StanFromIreland · Pull Request #159241 · python/cpython

StanFromIreland · 2026-10-12T17:25:03Z

Issue: Deprecate __author__, __credits__ and __copyright__ attributes in stdlib modules #159240

…in stdlib modules

read-the-docs-community · 2026-10-12T17:28:30Z

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gvanrossum · 2026-10-12T18:18:52Z

Please remove me from those attributions that include me. I'm "original author" of half the stdlib, after all, and I don't need to see my name repeated.

picnixz · 2026-10-12T19:16:28Z

-SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGE.
-"""
+# Copyright (c) 2001-2006 Gregory P. Ward.  All rights reserved.
+# Copyright (c) 2002 Python Software Foundation.  All rights reserved.


I don't think we need to retain the licensing though as it's the PSF one (?) otherwise this may conflict with the one that we currently use.

I thought about this, but I wasn't sure, and I'm no lawyer. @gward would this be alright?

Other stdlib modules don't have explicit license text. IANAL, but it does seem either redundant or contradictory to include it. Who would be the PSF licensing person to double-check with?

malemburg · 2026-10-13T06:11:06Z

Hi Stan, I will have a closer look later today. Just wanted to mention that removing authorship and copyright notices will most likely not work without the author's consent. Thanks. -- Marc-Andre Lemburg https://malemburg.com/

…

On 12 October 2026 22:34:46 EEST, Stan Ulbrych ***@***.***> wrote: @StanFromIreland requested your review on: python/cpython#159241 gh-159240: Deprecate `__{author,credits,copyright}__` attributes in stdlib modules. -- Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHub: #159241 (comment) You are receiving this because your review was requested. Message ID: ***@***.***>

malemburg

Ok, so it looks like you are only removing the attributes from the code and moving the notices to comments. This should be fine. There's one catch, though, you should be aware of: if you put the notices into an attribute, they will be available in the PYCs and the live code when used at runtime as well. Having the notices in comments does not have the same effect.

Personally, I'm fine with not having the notices for e.g. platform.py in attributes anymore, but others may feel differently about this.

StanFromIreland · 2026-10-13T15:41:21Z

Thank you for the review.

Just wanted to mention that removing authorship and copyright notices will most likely not work without the author's consent.

Since we're keeping the information, I think we should generally be alright here?

There's one catch, though, you should be aware of: if you put the notices into an attribute, they will be available in the PYCs and the live code when used at runtime as well.

Yes, but I don't think anyone needs programmatic access to this information, which is often misleading or outdated. At least, no one has expressed such a need in the discussion.

nedbat

Ideally we'd resolve the question about the license, but that could also be a follow-on PR.

malemburg · 2026-10-15T12:53:19Z

Regarding licenses in the code base: Usually, only the copyright holders can give permission to remove those licenses or copyright notices (most licenses require to include the text in all copies).

Also note that unless an author has assigned copyright to the PSF, the PSF only gets redistribution rights via the CLA. The author retains the copyright.

StanFromIreland · 2026-10-21T16:40:09Z

If there are no objections, I'll merge this Friday week.

hugovk

Refactor suggestion: we have a lot of repeated boilerplate, like:

class TestModule(unittest.TestCase):
    def test_deprecated__version__(self):
        with self.assertWarnsRegex(
            DeprecationWarning,
            "'__version__' is deprecated and slated for removal in Python 3.20",
        ) as cm:
            getattr(ttk, "__version__")
        self.assertEqual(cm.filename, __file__)

    def test_deprecated__author__(self):
        with self.assertWarnsRegex(
            DeprecationWarning,
            "'__author__' is deprecated and slated for removal in Python 3.20",
        ) as cm:
            getattr(ttk, "__author__")
        self.assertEqual(cm.filename, __file__)

These two functions target the same removal version and could be merged into a single test_deprecated_dunder_attributes function.

But between this PR and the existing __version__ deprecations, that still means lots of boilerplate across test files.

Let's create a single test helper that takes one or more attribute names and their removal version.

vstinner

LGTM. I'm fine with remove these attributes, and it's good that authors are kept in comments.

vstinner · 2026-10-22T23:05:09Z

-__author__  = "Lars Gust\u00e4bel ([email protected])"
-__credits__ = "Gustavo Niemeyer, Niels Gust\u00e4bel, Richard Townsend."
+# Original author: Lars Gustäbel ([email protected])
+# Credits: Gustavo Niemeyer, Niels Gustäbel, Richard Townsend.


Yeah, Unicode!

hugovk

Thanks!

If there are no objections, I'll merge this Friday week.

I'm not sure if you meant today, Friday 23rd, or next Friday 30th. In my English, "this Friday week" means "a week on Friday", that is, the Friday after the upcoming Friday, so would be the 30th.

(Whereas "Friday this week" means today the 23rd!)

Anyway, either is fine by me :)

(This PR has merge conflicts.)

StanFromIreland · 2026-10-23T14:52:25Z

I'm not sure if you meant today, Friday 23rd, or next Friday 30th. In my English, "this Friday week" means "a week on Friday", that is, the Friday after the upcoming Friday, so would be the 30th.

Sorry for the Irish-English! ;-) I meant Friday the 30th.

(This PR has merge conflicts.)

I presume a few more will pop up till next week, so I'll get them all then.

Thanks for the review!

StanFromIreland · 2026-10-30T11:24:27Z

Thanks for all the reviews!

Deprecate __author__, __credits__ and __copyright__ attributes …

0f0b144

…in stdlib modules

StanFromIreland requested review from AA-Turner, ethanfurman, lysnikolaou, pablogsal and vsajip as code owners October 12, 2026 17:25

bedevere-app Bot added the type-feature A feature request or enhancement label Oct 12, 2026

bedevere-app Bot mentioned this pull request Oct 12, 2026

Deprecate __author__, __credits__ and __copyright__ attributes in stdlib modules #159240

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bedevere-app Bot added the awaiting core review label Oct 12, 2026

StanFromIreland requested a review from malemburg October 12, 2026 17:26

Remove Guido from attribution comments 🫡

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picnixz reviewed Oct 12, 2026

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malemburg reviewed Oct 13, 2026

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nedbat reviewed Oct 15, 2026

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Comment thread Lib/pydoc.py Resolved

nedbat approved these changes Oct 15, 2026

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bedevere-app Bot added awaiting merge and removed awaiting core review labels Oct 15, 2026

hugovk reviewed Oct 22, 2026

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Comment thread Lib/test/test_logging.py Resolved

Refactor testing

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StanFromIreland requested review from a team and savannahostrowski as code owners October 22, 2026 15:05

StanFromIreland requested a review from hugovk October 22, 2026 15:10

savannahostrowski approved these changes Oct 22, 2026

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vstinner approved these changes Oct 22, 2026

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hugovk approved these changes Oct 23, 2026

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Merge branch 'main' into deprecate-attributes

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StanFromIreland enabled auto-merge (squash) October 30, 2026 10:40

StanFromIreland merged commit 6632294 into python:main Oct 30, 2026
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StanFromIreland deleted the deprecate-attributes branch October 30, 2026 11:18

bedevere-app Bot removed the awaiting merge label Oct 30, 2026

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