Marshal format version: Meaning of setting a larger-than-supported version?
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- Python
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Description
Documentation
Python 3.14 bumped the marshal format version to 5. Curious to find out what setting the version to 5 for earlier Python releases, I took a look at https://github.com/python/cpython/blob/main/Python/marshal.c and found that all version comparisons are [<>][=], meaning that it would be perfectly legal to set version=99 to always get the latest. Specifically, setting version=5 on Python 3.13 will also give the latest supported marshal format on that release, namely 4, without warning or error.
That seems a little funny.
Contributor guide
First steps
- Read the whole issue, then the project's contributing guide.
- Comment on the issue to say you are picking it up — it saves two people doing the same work.
- Fork the repository and make your change on a branch.
- Open a pull request that references the issue number.
Research direction
Start by reading the marshal documentation linked in the issue and inspect the version comparisons in Python/marshal.c. Determine the intended behavior when a caller supplies a version newer than the interpreter supports, then update the documentation or clarify the issue's expected resolution and verify the wording against the implementation.
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Assessment
- Tech stack
- python
- Domain
- documentation
- Issue type
- Documentation
- Difficulty
- 2/5
- Estimated time
- 1-3 hours
- Activity status
- Stale
- Clarity
- Mostly clear
- Newbie friendliness
- 35/100