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{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"DiscussionForumPosting","headline":"Drop use of pytz","articleBody":"From what I can tell, `pytz` is only used to access a `UTC` time zone, and to create fixed offsets in the tests. Both of these use cases are supported in the Python standard library `datetime` module in all supported versions of Python 3.\r\n\r\nSince `pytz` is deprecated or semi-deprecated, it would be a good idea to remove the `pytz` dependency as soon as possible. It seems that the master branch has not dropped Python 2.7 support yet, so I think the prudent course of action would be to either drop Python 2.7 support entirely in the next release, and drop the `pytz` dependency along with it.\r\n\r\nIf you cannot drop Python 2.7 support, it's fairly trivial to write a `UTC` object for Python 2.7 compatibility, or you can add a 2.7-only dependency on `python-dateutil` to get access to `dateutil.tz.UTC` and `dateutil.tz.tzoffset`.\r\n\r\nThe only downside to dropping `pytz` is that if a user is counting on your methods generating `datetime` objects with `pytz.UTC` attached, because they are doing something like `dt.tzinfo.localize(something)`. This is because [`pytz` has its own non-standard time zone interface](https://blog.ganssle.io/articles/2018/03/pytz-fastest-footgun.html), and other `tzinfo` providers don't have the same API. This would only happen if someone is doing something like this:\r\n\r\n```python\r\nstamp = datetime_helpers.DatetimeWithNanoseconds.from_rfc3339(\"2016-12-20T21:13:47.123456789Z\")\r\ndt = stamp.tzinfo.localize(datetime(2020, 1, 1))\r\n```\r\n\r\nIt seems unlikely that anyone is counting on this, and it's easy enough to fix if they are, particularly for UTC objects.\r\n\r\nIf you are very worried about it, I have a [`pytz-deprecation-shim`](https://pytz-deprecation-shim.readthedocs.io/en/latest/) module that provides the same API as `pytz`, but can be used as a normal `tzinfo`, and raises deprecation warnings whenever the `pytz`-specific methods are used. I believe that is probably a heavier dependency than you need for these purposes (it also works in Python 2.7).\r\n\r\nCC: @geofft","author":{"url":"https://github.com/pganssle","@type":"Person","name":"pganssle"},"datePublished":"2020-08-19T18:03:04.000Z","interactionStatistic":{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":"https://schema.org/CommentAction","userInteractionCount":1},"url":"https://github.com/73/python-api-core/issues/73"}