Deprecations#

Policy#

If the behavior of the library has to be changed, a deprecation cycle must be followed to warn users.

A deprecation cycle is not necessary when:

  • adding a new function, or

  • adding a new keyword argument to the end of a function signature, or

  • fixing buggy behavior

A deprecation cycle is necessary for any breaking API change, meaning a change where the function, invoked with the same arguments, would return a different result after the change. This includes:

  • changing the order of arguments or keyword arguments, or

  • adding arguments or keyword arguments to a function, or

  • changing the name of a function, class, method, etc., or

  • moving a function, class, etc. to a different module, or

  • changing the default value of a function’s arguments.

Usually, our policy is to put in place a deprecation cycle over two minor releases (e.g., if a deprecation warning appears in 2.3, then the functionality should be removed in 2.5). For major releases we usually require that all deprecations have at least a 1-release deprecation cycle (e.g., if 3.0 occurs after 2.5, then all removed functionality in 3.0 should be deprecated in 2.5).

Note that these 1- and 2-release deprecation cycles for major and minor releases is not a strict rule and in some cases, the developers can agree on a different procedure upon justification (like when we can’t detect the change, or it involves moving or deleting an entire function for example).

Todo#

Make sure to review networkx/conftest.py after removing deprecated code.

Version 3.3#

  • Remove pydot functionality drawing/nx_pydot.py, if pydot is still not being maintained. See #5723

  • Remove the forest_str function from readwrite/text.py. Replace existing usages with write_network_text.

  • Change single_target_shortest_path_length in algorithms/shortest_path/unweighted.py to return a dict. See #6527

  • Change shortest_path in algorithms/shortest_path/generic.py to return a iterator. See #6527

Version 3.4#

  • Remove the random_tree function from generators/trees.py. Replace existing usages with random_labeled_tree.

  • Remove the sort_neighbors input parameter from generic_bfs_edges.

  • Remove MultiDiGraph_EdgeKey class from algorithms/tree/branchings.py.

  • Remove Edmonds class from algorithms/tree/branchings.py.

  • Remove normalized kwarg from algorithms.s_metric

  • Remove renamed function join() in algorithms/tree/operations.py and in doc/reference/algorithms/trees.rst

  • Remove strongly_connected_components_recursive from algorithms/components/strongly_connected.py