gh-88427: Deprecate socket.SocketType

Doc/deprecations/pending-removal-in-3.16.rst

@@ -39,6 +39,10 @@ Pending removal in Python 3.16
     It has not been used by any function in :mod:`!shutil` since Python 3.4,
     and is now an alias of :exc:`RuntimeError`.
 
+* :mod:`socket`:
+  :class:`socket.SocketType`: use :class:`socket.socket` type instead.
+  (Contributed by James Roy in :gh:`88427`.)
+
 * :mod:`symtable`:
 
   * The :meth:`Class.get_methods <symtable.Class.get_methods>` method

Doc/library/socket.rst

@@ -913,6 +913,9 @@ The following functions all create :ref:`socket objects <socket-objects>`.
    This is a Python type object that represents the socket object type. It is the
    same as ``type(socket(...))``.
 
+   .. deprecated:: next
+      Use :class:`socket.socket` type instead.
+
 
 Other functions
 '''''''''''''''

Lib/socket.py

@@ -69,6 +69,11 @@
            "has_dualstack_ipv6", "AddressFamily", "SocketKind"]
 __all__.extend(os._get_exports_list(_socket))
 
+def __getattr__(name):
+    if name == "SocketType":
+        return _socket.SocketType
+    raise AttributeError(f"module {__name__!r} has no attribute {name!r}")
+
 # Set up the socket.AF_* socket.SOCK_* constants as members of IntEnums for
 # nicer string representations.
 # Note that _socket only knows about the integer values. The public interface

Misc/NEWS.d/next/Library/2024-11-01-20-09-53.gh-issue-88427.chYNT6.rst

@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+:attr:`!socket.SocketType` is now deprecated and planned to be removed in Python 3.16. Use :class:`socket.socket` instead.

Modules/socketmodule.c

@@ -5611,6 +5611,20 @@ static PyType_Spec sock_spec = {
     .slots = sock_slots,
 };
 
+static PyObject*
+socket_getattr(PyObject *self, PyObject *name)
+{
+    if (PyUnicode_EqualToUTF8(name, "SocketType")) {
+        socket_state *state = get_module_state(self);
+        PyErr_Warn(PyExc_DeprecationWarning, "_socket.SocketType is deprecated and "
+                                             "will be removed in Python 3.16. "
+                                             "Use socket.socket instead");
+        return state != NULL ? (PyObject *)state->sock_type : NULL;
+    }
+
+    PyErr_Format(PyExc_AttributeError, "module _socket has no attribute '%U'", name);
+    return NULL;
+}
 
 #ifdef HAVE_GETHOSTNAME
 /* Python interface to gethostname(). */
@@ -7216,6 +7230,7 @@ range of values.");
 /* List of functions exported by this module. */
 
 static PyMethodDef socket_methods[] = {
+    {"__getattr__", socket_getattr, METH_O, "Module __getattr__"},
 #ifdef HAVE_GETADDRINFO
     {"gethostbyname",           socket_gethostbyname,
      METH_VARARGS, gethostbyname_doc},
@@ -7468,9 +7483,6 @@ socket_exec(PyObject *m)
         goto error;
     }
     state->sock_type = (PyTypeObject *)sock_type;
-    if (PyModule_AddObjectRef(m, "SocketType", sock_type) < 0) {
-        goto error;
-    }
     if (PyModule_AddType(m, state->sock_type) < 0) {
         goto error;
     }