add blog post about release

posts/2025/02/pypy-v7318-release.txt

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+.. title: PyPy v7.3.18 release
+.. slug: pypy-v7318-release
+.. date: 2025-02-06 12:00:00 UTC
+.. tags: release
+.. category: 
+.. link: 
+.. description: 
+.. type: rst
+.. author: mattip
+
+=======================================================
+PyPy v7.3.18: release of python 2.7, 3.10 and 3.11 beta
+=======================================================
+
+The PyPy team is proud to release version 7.3.18 of PyPy.
+
+This release includes a python 3.11 interpreter. We are labelling it "beta"
+because it is the first one. In the next release we will drop 3.10 and remove
+the "beta" label. There are a particularly large set of bugfixes in this
+release thanks to @devdanzin using fusil on the 3.10 builds, originally written
+by Victor Stinner. Other significant changes:
+
+- We have updated libffi shipped in our portable builds. We also now statically
+  link to libffi where possible which reduces the number of
+  shared object dependencies.
+
+- We have added code to be able to show the native function names when
+  profiling with VMProf. So far only Linux supports this feature.
+
+- We have added a `PEP 768`_-inspired remote debugging facility.
+
+- The HPy backend has been updated to latest HPy HEAD
+
+The release includes three different interpreters:
+
+- PyPy2.7, which is an interpreter supporting the syntax and the features of
+  Python 2.7 including the stdlib for CPython 2.7.18+ (the ``+`` is for
+  backported security updates)
+
+- PyPy3.10, which is an interpreter supporting the syntax and the features of
+  Python 3.10, including the stdlib for CPython 3.10.19.
+
+- PyPy3.11, which is an interpreter supporting the syntax and the features of
+  Python 3.11, including the stdlib for CPython 3.10.11.
+
+The interpreters are based on much the same codebase, thus the triple
+release. This is a micro release, all APIs are compatible with the other 7.3
+releases. It follows after 7.3.17 release on August 28, 2024.
+
+We recommend updating. You can find links to download the releases here:
+
+    https://pypy.org/download.html
+
+We would like to thank our donors for the continued support of the PyPy
+project. If PyPy is not quite good enough for your needs, we are available for
+`direct consulting`_ work. If PyPy is helping you out, we would love to hear
+about it and encourage submissions to our blog_ via a pull request
+to https://github.com/pypy/pypy.org
+
+We would also like to thank our contributors and encourage new people to join
+the project. PyPy has many layers and we need help with all of them: bug fixes,
+`PyPy`_ and `RPython`_ documentation improvements, or general `help`_ with
+making RPython's JIT even better.
+
+If you are a python library maintainer and use C-extensions, please consider
+making a HPy_ / CFFI_ / cppyy_ version of your library that would be performant
+on PyPy. In any case, both `cibuildwheel`_ and the `multibuild system`_ support
+building wheels for PyPy.
+
+.. _`PyPy`: index.html
+.. _`RPython`: https://rpython.readthedocs.org
+.. _`help`: project-ideas.html
+.. _CFFI: https://cffi.readthedocs.io
+.. _cppyy: https://cppyy.readthedocs.io
+.. _`multibuild system`: https://github.com/matthew-brett/multibuild
+.. _`cibuildwheel`: https://github.com/joerick/cibuildwheel
+.. _blog: https://pypy.org/blog
+.. _HPy: https://hpyproject.org/
+.. _direct consulting: https://www.pypy.org/pypy-sponsors.html
+.. _`PEP 768`: https://peps.python.org/pep-0768/
+
+VMProf Native Symbol Names
+===========================
+
+When running VMProf profiling with native profiling enabled, PyPy did so far
+not produce function names for C functions. The output looked like this::
+
+    pypy -m vmprof ~/projects/gitpypy/lib-python/2.7/test/pystone.py
+    Pystone(1.1) time for 50000 passes = 0.0109887
+    This machine benchmarks at 4.55011e+06 pystones/second
+     vmprof output:
+     %:      name:                location:
+     100.0%  entry_point          <builtin>/app_main.py:874
+     100.0%  run_command_line     <builtin>/app_main.py:601
+     100.0%  run_toplevel         <builtin>/app_main.py:93
+     100.0%  _run_module_as_main  /home/user/bin/pypy-c-jit-170203-99a72243b541-linux64/lib-python/2.7/runpy.py:150
+     100.0%  _run_code            /home/user/bin/pypy-c-jit-170203-99a72243b541-linux64/lib-python/2.7/runpy.py:62
+     100.0%  <module>             /home/user/bin/pypy-c-jit-170203-99a72243b541-linux64/site-packages/vmprof/__main__.py:1
+     100.0%  main                 /home/user/bin/pypy-c-jit-170203-99a72243b541-linux64/site-packages/vmprof/__main__.py:30
+     100.0%  run_path             /home/user/bin/pypy-c-jit-170203-99a72243b541-linux64/lib-python/2.7/runpy.py:238
+     100.0%  _run_module_code     /home/user/bin/pypy-c-jit-170203-99a72243b541-linux64/lib-python/2.7/runpy.py:75
+     100.0%  <module>             /home/user/projects/gitpypy/lib-python/2.7/test/pystone.py:3
+     100.0%  main                 /home/user/projects/gitpypy/lib-python/2.7/test/pystone.py:60
+     100.0%  pystones             /home/user/projects/gitpypy/lib-python/2.7/test/pystone.py:67
+     100.0%  Proc0                /home/user/projects/gitpypy/lib-python/2.7/test/pystone.py:79
+     76.9%   <unknown code>
+     69.2%   <unknown code>
+     53.8%   <unknown code>
+     53.8%   <unknown code>
+     46.2%   <unknown code>
+     46.2%   <unknown code>
+     38.5%   <unknown code>
+     38.5%   Proc8                /home/user/projects/gitpypy/lib-python/2.7/test/pystone.py:212
+     30.8%   <unknown code>
+     ...
+
+We can now symbolify these C functions and give function names and which
+shared library they come from, at least on Linux::
+
+    Pystone(1.1) time for 50000 passes = 0.218967
+    This machine benchmarks at 228345 pystones/second
+     vmprof output:
+     %:      name:                                           location:
+     100.0%  entry_point                                     <builtin>/app_main.py:889
+     100.0%  run_command_line                                <builtin>/app_main.py:616
+     100.0%  run_toplevel                                    <builtin>/app_main.py:95
+     100.0%  _run_module_as_main                             /home/user/projects/gitpypy/lib-python/2.7/runpy.py:150
+     100.0%  _run_code                                       /home/user/projects/gitpypy/lib-python/2.7/runpy.py:62
+     100.0%  <module>                                        /home/user/projects/gitpypy/site-packages/vmprof/__main__.py:1
+     100.0%  main                                            /home/user/projects/gitpypy/site-packages/vmprof/__main__.py:30
+     100.0%  run_module                                      /home/user/projects/gitpypy/lib-python/2.7/runpy.py:179
+     100.0%  _run_module_code                                /home/user/projects/gitpypy/lib-python/2.7/runpy.py:75
+     100.0%  <module>                                        /home/user/projects/gitpypy/lib-python/2.7/test/pystone.py:3
+     100.0%  main                                            /home/user/projects/gitpypy/lib-python/2.7/test/pystone.py:60
+     100.0%  pystones                                        /home/user/projects/gitpypy/lib-python/2.7/test/pystone.py:67
+     100.0%  Proc0                                           /home/user/projects/gitpypy/lib-python/2.7/test/pystone.py:79
+     95.5%   n:pypy_g_execute_frame:0:pypy-c
+     91.4%   n:pypy_g_PyFrame_dispatch:0:pypy-c
+     63.8%   n:pypy_g_PyFrame_dispatch_bytecode:0:pypy-c
+     49.8%   Proc1                                           /home/user/projects/gitpypy/lib-python/2.7/test/pystone.py:137
+     17.6%   copy                                            /home/user/projects/gitpypy/lib-python/2.7/test/pystone.py:53
+     13.6%   n:pypy_g_PyFrame_CALL_FUNCTION:0:pypy-c
+     10.4%   Proc8                                           /home/user/projects/gitpypy/lib-python/2.7/test/pystone.py:212
+     8.6%    n:pypy_g_STORE_ATTR_slowpath:0:pypy-c
+
+This becomes even more useful when using the `VMProf Firefox converter`_, which
+uses the Firefox Profiler Web UI to visualize profiling output:
+
+.. image:: /images/2025-vmprof-firefox.png
+
+.. _`VMProf Firefox converter`: https://github.com/Cskorpion/vmprof-firefox-converter/
+
+What is PyPy?
+=============
+
+PyPy is a Python interpreter, a drop-in replacement for CPython
+It's fast (`PyPy and CPython`_ performance
+comparison) due to its integrated tracing JIT compiler.
+
+We also welcome developers of other `dynamic languages`_ to see what RPython
+can do for them.
+
+We provide binary builds for:
+
+* **x86** machines on most common operating systems
+  (Linux 32/64 bits, Mac OS 64 bits, Windows 64 bits)
+
+* 64-bit **ARM** machines running Linux (``aarch64``) and macos (``macos_arm64``).
+
+PyPy supports Windows 32-bit, Linux PPC64 big- and little-endian, Linux ARM
+32 bit, RISC-V RV64IMAFD Linux, and s390x Linux but does not release binaries.
+Please reach out to us if you wish to sponsor binary releases for those
+platforms. Downstream packagers provide binary builds for debian, Fedora,
+conda, OpenBSD, FreeBSD, Gentoo, and more.
+
+.. _`PyPy and CPython`: https://speed.pypy.org
+.. _`dynamic languages`: https://rpython.readthedocs.io/en/latest/examples.html
+
+What else is new?
+=================
+
+For more information about the 7.3.18 release, see the `full changelog`_.
+
+Please update, and continue to help us make pypy better.
+
+Cheers,
+The PyPy Team
+
+.. _`full changelog`: https://doc.pypy.org/en/latest/release-v7.3.18.html#changelog