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 3.5#

  • Remove all_triplets from algorithms/triads.py

  • Remove random_triad from algorithms/triad.py.

  • Remove d_separated from algorithms/d_separation.py.

  • Remove minimal_d_separator from algorithms/d_separation.py.

  • Add not_implemented_for("multigraph”) decorator to k_core, k_shell, k_crust and k_corona functions.

  • 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

  • Remove total_spanning_tree_weight from linalg/laplacianmatrix.py

  • Remove create keyword argument from nonisomorphic_trees in generators/nonisomorphic_trees.

Version 3.6#

  • Remove compute_v_structures from algorithms/dag.py.

  • Remove link kwarg from readwrite/json_graph/node_link.py; Remove the FutureWarning re: the default value of edges and change the default value to "edges".

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