Version 2.8.1 (2019-11-03)

==========================

Data updates

------------

- Updated tzdata version to 2019c.

Bugfixes

--------

- Fixed a race condition in the ``tzoffset`` and ``tzstr`` "strong" caches on

Python 2.7. Reported by @kainjow (gh issue #901).

- Parsing errors will now raise ``ParserError``, a subclass of ``ValueError``,

which has a nicer string representation. Patch by @gfyoung (gh pr #881).

- ``parser.parse`` will now raise ``TypeError`` when ``tzinfos`` is passed a

type that cannot be interpreted as a time zone. Prior to this change, it

would raise an ``UnboundLocalError`` instead. Patch by @jbrockmendel (gh pr

#891).

- Changed error message raised when when passing a ``bytes`` object as the time

zone name to gettz in Python 3. Reported and fixed by @labrys () (gh issue

#927, gh pr #935).

- Changed compatibility logic to support a potential Python 4.0 release. Patch

by Hugo van Kemenade (gh pr #950).

- Updated many modules to use ``tz.UTC`` in favor of ``tz.tzutc()`` internally,

to avoid an unnecessary function call. (gh pr #910).

- Fixed issue where ``dateutil.tz`` was using a backported version of

``contextlib.nullcontext`` even in Python 3.7 due to a malformed import

statement. (gh pr #963).

Tests

-----

- Switched from using assertWarns to using pytest.warns in the test suite. (gh

pr #969).

- Fix typo in setup.cfg causing PendingDeprecationWarning to not be explicitly

specified as an error in the warnings filter. (gh pr #966)

- Fixed issue where ``test_tzlocal_offset_equal`` would fail in certain

environments (such as FreeBSD) due to an invalid assumption about what time

zone names are provided. Reported and fixed by Kubilay Kocak (gh issue #918,

pr #928).

- Fixed a minor bug in ``test_isoparser`` related to ``bytes``/``str``

handling. Fixed by @fhuang5 (gh issue #776, gh pr #879).

- Explicitly listed all markers used in the pytest configuration. (gh pr #915)

- Extensive improvements to the parser test suite, including the adoption of

``pytest``-style tests and the addition of parametrization of several test

cases. Patches by @jbrockmendel (gh prs #735, #890, #892, #894).

- Added tests for tzinfos input types. Patch by @jbrockmendel (gh pr #891).

- Fixed failure of test suite when changing the TZ variable is forbidden.

Patch by @shadchin (gh pr #893).

- Pinned all test dependencies on Python 3.3. (gh prs #934, #962)

Documentation changes

---------------------

- Fixed many misspellings, typos and styling errors in the comments and

documentation. Patch by Hugo van Kemenade (gh pr #952).

Misc

----

- Added Python 3.8 to the trove classifiers. (gh pr #970)

- Moved as many keys from ``setup.py`` to ``setup.cfg`` as possible. Fixed by

@FakeNameSE, @aquinlan82, @jachen20, and @gurgenz221 (gh issue #871, gh pr

#880).

- Reorganized ``parser`` methods by functionality. Patch by @jbrockmendel (gh

pr #882).

- Switched ``release.py`` over to using ``pep517.build`` for creating releases,

rather than direct invocations of ``setup.py``. Fixed by @smeng10 (gh issue

#869, gh pr #875).

- Added a "build" environment into the tox configuration, to handle dependency

management when making releases. Fixed by @smeng10 (gh issue #870,r

gh pr #876).

- GH #916, GH #971