Python 2 deprecated; Python 3 soon to be updated from 3.7 to 3.9

As of today, we’re no longer recommending or supporting the obsolete Python 2 program on our servers. (Python is a scripting language; if you don’t know what that means, your site is unlikely to affected by this and you can ignore it.)

Python 2 will remain installed on our servers for one more year until June 1, 2024, but anyone using Python 2 should switch to Python 3 now. Python 3 has been available on our servers for several years, and most customers who use Python have already switched to it. If you’re still using Python 2 next year, we’ll send you extra reminders before we remove it.

As part of this change, note that there are a few systemwide Python modules like chardet on Debian Linux that can support either Python 2 or Python 3, but not both simultaneously. Those systemwide modules will soon be switched to Python 3 if they’re currently the Python 2 versions. In the unlikely event that you’ve written a script relying on a systemwide Python 2 module that gets replaced, let us know and we can help you set up a local virtualenv copy (which is the preferred way of installing modules for Python scripts anyway).

Python 3.9

We’ll also be updating the Python 3 version on our servers from Python 3.7 to 3.9 over the next few weeks. Scripts written to work with Python 3.7 should also work with Python 3.9, so this should not affect customers.

We’re here to help

As always, if you have any trouble as a result of these changes, feel free to contact us and we’ll do our best to help.