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DJANGO SHORES UP PYTHON 3.15 COMPATIBILITY AS SMTP TESTS GET OVERHAULED
By RepoJournal · Filed · About Django
Django is prepping for Python 3.15 by fixing email backend tests that relied on outdated CPython behavior around non-ASCII addresses.
The Django core team updated SMTP EmailBackend tests [1][2] to handle Python 3.15's fix for non-ASCII email encoding, which CPython had been getting wrong since forever. The test now feature-detects whether the Python runtime has the fix in place, then validates the error handling either way. This matters because Python 3.15 finally corrects gh-122476, and Django's test suite needs to not explode when it does. Meanwhile, the Django website pushed a quality-of-life win by adding lazy-loading attributes to all blog images [3], cutting unnecessary network requests on content pages that don't need to load below-the-fold images on arrival. Small change, real performance impact for readers on slower connections.
Action items
- → Review Django PR #21284 for Python 3.15 EmailBackend test changes before next release django/django [plan]
- → Test your Django apps against Python 3.15 beta when available django/django [plan]
References
- [1] Refs #36664 -- Updated SMTP EmailBackend tests for Python 3.15. ↗ django/django
- [2] Refs #36664 -- Updated SMTP EmailBackend tests for Python 3.15. django/django
- [3] #2154 Lazy-loading for images in blog content ↗ django/djangoproject.com
FAQ
- What changed in Django on May 15, 2026?
- Django is prepping for Python 3.15 by fixing email backend tests that relied on outdated CPython behavior around non-ASCII addresses.
- What should Django teams do about it?
- Review Django PR #21284 for Python 3.15 EmailBackend test changes before next release • Test your Django apps against Python 3.15 beta when available
- Which Django repositories shipped on May 15, 2026?
- django/django, django/djangoproject.com