End of support for python 2.7?

Question

Is there a known date/timeframe when python 2.7 will not be supported any more in favor of python 3?

Answer 1

In May 2010, Word of God was that patchlevel releases for Python 2.7 will probably be made for at least 6 years.

So, maybe 2016, probably later.

Edit: Pushed back to 2020. See the revision to PEP 373, linked to in other answers.

Answer 2

This article says: “When 2.7 is released, the 2.x line will move into five years of a bug fix-only mode.”

So, as far as I see, Python 2.7 was the last 2.x feature-adding release, and though found bugs are going to be fixed (for some time), new features only go to 3.x releases.

Answer 3

The Python Developer’s Guide lists the "Status of Python branches" from version 2.6 up to the current version, including their current support status with End-of-life dates.

Currently supported (bug + security fixes):

• Python 3.8 (current master/development branch)
• Python 3.7
• Python 3.6
• Python 2.7 (until 2020-01-01)

Security fixes only:

• Python 3.5
• Python 3.4