blinker is required, signals are always available

CHANGES.rst

@@ -28,6 +28,8 @@ Unreleased
 -   The ``app.got_first_request`` property is deprecated. :pr:`4997`
 -   The ``locked_cached_property`` decorator is deprecated. Use a lock inside the
     decorated function if locking is needed. :issue:`4993`
+-   Signals are always available. ``blinker>=1.6.2`` is a required dependency. The
+    ``signals_available`` attribute is deprecated. :issue:`5056`
 -   Remove uses of locks that could cause requests to block each other very briefly.
     :issue:`4993`
 -   Use modern packaging metadata with ``pyproject.toml`` instead of ``setup.cfg``.

docs/api.rst

@@ -333,14 +333,9 @@ Useful Internals
 Signals
 -------
 
-.. versionadded:: 0.6
+Signals are provided by the `Blinker`_ library. See :doc:`signals` for an introduction.
 
-.. data:: signals.signals_available
-
-   ``True`` if the signaling system is available. This is the case
-   when `blinker`_ is installed.
-
-The following signals exist in Flask:
+.. _blinker: https://blinker.readthedocs.io/
 
 .. data:: template_rendered
 
@@ -507,7 +502,6 @@ The following signals exist in Flask:
 
    .. versionadded:: 0.10
 
-
 .. data:: message_flashed
 
    This signal is sent when the application is flashing a message. The
@@ -525,22 +519,10 @@ The following signals exist in Flask:
 
    .. versionadded:: 0.10
 
-.. class:: signals.Namespace
+.. data:: signals.signals_available
 
-   An alias for :class:`blinker.base.Namespace` if blinker is available,
-   otherwise a dummy class that creates fake signals. This class is
-   available for Flask extensions that want to provide the same fallback
-   system as Flask itself.
-
-   .. method:: signal(name, doc=None)
-
-      Creates a new signal for this namespace if blinker is available,
-      otherwise returns a fake signal that has a send method that will
-      do nothing but will fail with a :exc:`RuntimeError` for all other
-      operations, including connecting.
-
-
-.. _blinker: https://pypi.org/project/blinker/
+    .. deprecated:: 2.3
+        Will be removed in Flask 2.4. Signals are always available
 
 
 Class-Based Views

docs/appcontext.rst

@@ -140,10 +140,8 @@ Accessing ``db`` will call ``get_db`` internally, in the same way that
 Events and Signals
 ------------------
 
-The application will call functions registered with
-:meth:`~Flask.teardown_appcontext` when the application context is
-popped.
+The application will call functions registered with :meth:`~Flask.teardown_appcontext`
+when the application context is popped.
 
-If :data:`~signals.signals_available` is true, the following signals are
-sent: :data:`appcontext_pushed`, :data:`appcontext_tearing_down`, and
-:data:`appcontext_popped`.
+The following signals are sent: :data:`appcontext_pushed`,
+:data:`appcontext_tearing_down`, and :data:`appcontext_popped`.

docs/installation.rst

@@ -24,12 +24,14 @@ These distributions will be installed automatically when installing Flask.
   to protect Flask's session cookie.
 * `Click`_ is a framework for writing command line applications. It provides
   the ``flask`` command and allows adding custom management commands.
+* `Blinker`_ provides support for :doc:`signals`.
 
 .. _Werkzeug: https://palletsprojects.com/p/werkzeug/
 .. _Jinja: https://palletsprojects.com/p/jinja/
 .. _MarkupSafe: https://palletsprojects.com/p/markupsafe/
 .. _ItsDangerous: https://palletsprojects.com/p/itsdangerous/
 .. _Click: https://palletsprojects.com/p/click/
+.. _Blinker: https://blinker.readthedocs.io/
 
 
 Optional dependencies
@@ -38,13 +40,11 @@ Optional dependencies
 These distributions will not be installed automatically. Flask will detect and
 use them if you install them.
 
-* `Blinker`_ provides support for :doc:`signals`.
 * `python-dotenv`_ enables support for :ref:`dotenv` when running ``flask``
   commands.
 * `Watchdog`_ provides a faster, more efficient reloader for the development
   server.
 
-.. _Blinker: https://blinker.readthedocs.io/en/stable/
 .. _python-dotenv: https://github.com/theskumar/python-dotenv#readme
 .. _watchdog: https://pythonhosted.org/watchdog/
 

docs/reqcontext.rst

@@ -204,21 +204,16 @@ contexts until the ``with`` block exits.
 Signals
 ~~~~~~~
 
-If :data:`~signals.signals_available` is true, the following signals are
-sent:
+The following signals are sent:
 
-#.  :data:`request_started` is sent before the
-    :meth:`~Flask.before_request` functions are called.
-
-#.  :data:`request_finished` is sent after the
-    :meth:`~Flask.after_request` functions are called.
-
-#.  :data:`got_request_exception` is sent when an exception begins to
-    be handled, but before an :meth:`~Flask.errorhandler` is looked up or
-    called.
-
-#.  :data:`request_tearing_down` is sent after the
-    :meth:`~Flask.teardown_request` functions are called.
+#.  :data:`request_started` is sent before the :meth:`~Flask.before_request` functions
+    are called.
+#.  :data:`request_finished` is sent after the :meth:`~Flask.after_request` functions
+    are called.
+#.  :data:`got_request_exception` is sent when an exception begins to be handled, but
+    before an :meth:`~Flask.errorhandler` is looked up or called.
+#.  :data:`request_tearing_down` is sent after the :meth:`~Flask.teardown_request`
+    functions are called.
 
 
 .. _notes-on-proxies:

docs/signals.rst

@@ -1,33 +1,28 @@
 Signals
 =======
 
-.. versionadded:: 0.6
+Signals are a lightweight way to notify subscribers of certain events during the
+lifecycle of the application and each request. When an event occurs, it emits the
+signal, which calls each subscriber.
 
-Starting with Flask 0.6, there is integrated support for signalling in
-Flask.  This support is provided by the excellent `blinker`_ library and
-will gracefully fall back if it is not available.
+Signals are implemented by the `Blinker`_ library. See its documentation for detailed
+information. Flask provides some built-in signals. Extensions may provide their own.
 
-What are signals?  Signals help you decouple applications by sending
-notifications when actions occur elsewhere in the core framework or
-another Flask extensions.  In short, signals allow certain senders to
-notify subscribers that something happened.
+Many signals mirror Flask's decorator-based callbacks with similar names. For example,
+the :data:`.request_started` signal is similar to the :meth:`~.Flask.before_request`
+decorator. The advantage of signals over handlers is that they can be subscribed to
+temporarily, and can't directly affect the application. This is useful for testing,
+metrics, auditing, and more. For example, if you want to know what templates were
+rendered at what parts of what requests, there is a signal that will notify you of that
+information.
 
-Flask comes with a couple of signals and other extensions might provide
-more.  Also keep in mind that signals are intended to notify subscribers
-and should not encourage subscribers to modify data.  You will notice that
-there are signals that appear to do the same thing like some of the
-builtin decorators do (eg: :data:`~flask.request_started` is very similar
-to :meth:`~flask.Flask.before_request`).  However, there are differences in
-how they work.  The core :meth:`~flask.Flask.before_request` handler, for
-example, is executed in a specific order and is able to abort the request
-early by returning a response.  In contrast all signal handlers are
-executed in undefined order and do not modify any data.
 
-The big advantage of signals over handlers is that you can safely
-subscribe to them for just a split second.  These temporary
-subscriptions are helpful for unit testing for example.  Say you want to
-know what templates were rendered as part of a request: signals allow you
-to do exactly that.
+Core Signals
+------------
+
+See :ref:`core-signals-list` for a list of all built-in signals. The :doc:`lifecycle`
+page also describes the order that signals and decorators execute.
+
 
 Subscribing to Signals
 ----------------------
@@ -99,11 +94,6 @@ The example above would then look like this::
         ...
         template, context = templates[0]
 
-.. admonition:: Blinker API Changes
-
-   The :meth:`~blinker.base.Signal.connected_to` method arrived in Blinker
-   with version 1.1.
-
 Creating Signals
 ----------------
 
@@ -123,12 +113,6 @@ The name for the signal here makes it unique and also simplifies
 debugging.  You can access the name of the signal with the
 :attr:`~blinker.base.NamedSignal.name` attribute.
 
-.. admonition:: For Extension Developers
-
-   If you are writing a Flask extension and you want to gracefully degrade for
-   missing blinker installations, you can do so by using the
-   :class:`flask.signals.Namespace` class.
-
 .. _signals-sending:
 
 Sending Signals
@@ -170,7 +154,7 @@ in :ref:`signals-sending` and the :data:`~flask.request_tearing_down` signal.
 Decorator Based Signal Subscriptions
 ------------------------------------
 
-With Blinker 1.1 you can also easily subscribe to signals by using the new
+You can also easily subscribe to signals by using the
 :meth:`~blinker.base.NamedSignal.connect_via` decorator::
 
     from flask import template_rendered
@@ -179,10 +163,5 @@ With Blinker 1.1 you can also easily subscribe to signals by using the new
     def when_template_rendered(sender, template, context, **extra):
         print(f'Template {template.name} is rendered with {context}')
 
-Core Signals
-------------
-
-Take a look at :ref:`core-signals-list` for a list of all builtin signals.
-
 
 .. _blinker: https://pypi.org/project/blinker/

examples/javascript/pyproject.toml

@@ -11,7 +11,7 @@ dependencies = ["flask"]
 Documentation = "https://flask.palletsprojects.com/patterns/jquery/"
 
 [project.optional-dependencies]
-test = ["pytest", "blinker"]
+test = ["pytest"]
 
 [build-system]
 requires = ["setuptools"]

pyproject.toml

@@ -24,6 +24,7 @@ dependencies = [
     "Jinja2>=3.0",
     "itsdangerous>=2.0",
     "click>=8.0",
+    "blinker>=1.6.2",
     "importlib-metadata>=3.6.0; python_version < '3.10'",
 ]
 dynamic = ["version"]
@@ -90,7 +91,6 @@ warn_unused_ignores = true
 [[tool.mypy.overrides]]
 module = [
     "asgiref.*",
-    "blinker.*",
     "dotenv.*",
     "cryptography.*",
     "importlib_metadata",

requirements/build.txt

@@ -11,5 +11,3 @@ packaging==23.0
     # via build
 pyproject-hooks==1.0.0
     # via build
-tomli==2.0.1
-    # via build

requirements/tests-pallets-min.in

@@ -3,3 +3,4 @@ Jinja2==3.0.0
 MarkupSafe==2.0.0
 itsdangerous==2.0.0
 click==8.0.0
+blinker==1.6.2

requirements/tests-pallets-min.txt

@@ -1,10 +1,12 @@
-# SHA1:4de7d9e6254a945fd97ec10880dd23b6cd43b70d
+# SHA1:575f86f45391b662630a6080f0a12676215eb0cf
 #
 # This file is autogenerated by pip-compile-multi
 # To update, run:
 #
 #    pip-compile-multi
 #
+blinker==1.6.2
+    # via -r requirements/tests-pallets-min.in
 click==8.0.0
     # via -r requirements/tests-pallets-min.in
 itsdangerous==2.0.0

requirements/tests.in

@@ -1,5 +1,4 @@
 pytest
 asgiref
-blinker
 greenlet ; python_version < "3.11"
 python-dotenv>=1; python_version >= "3.8"

requirements/tests.txt

@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-# SHA1:30698f5f4f9cba5088318306829a15b0dc123b38
+# SHA1:3c8dde35aba20388b22430b17974af8ef8205b4f
 #
 # This file is autogenerated by pip-compile-multi
 # To update, run:
@@ -7,12 +7,6 @@
 #
 asgiref==3.6.0
     # via -r requirements/tests.in
-blinker==1.6.1
-    # via -r requirements/tests.in
-exceptiongroup==1.1.1
-    # via pytest
-greenlet==2.0.2 ; python_version < "3.11"
-    # via -r requirements/tests.in
 iniconfig==2.0.0
     # via pytest
 packaging==23.0
@@ -23,7 +17,3 @@ pytest==7.3.0
     # via -r requirements/tests.in
 python-dotenv==1.0.0 ; python_version >= "3.8"
     # via -r requirements/tests.in
-tomli==2.0.1
-    # via pytest
-typing-extensions==4.5.0
-    # via blinker

requirements/typing.txt

@@ -15,8 +15,6 @@ mypy-extensions==1.0.0
     # via mypy
 pycparser==2.21
     # via cffi
-tomli==2.0.1
-    # via mypy
 types-contextvars==2.4.7.2
     # via -r requirements/typing.in
 types-dataclasses==0.6.6

src/flask/__init__.py

@@ -32,7 +32,6 @@ from .signals import message_flashed as message_flashed
 from .signals import request_finished as request_finished
 from .signals import request_started as request_started
 from .signals import request_tearing_down as request_tearing_down
-from .signals import signals_available as signals_available
 from .signals import template_rendered as template_rendered
 from .templating import render_template as render_template
 from .templating import render_template_string as render_template_string
@@ -89,4 +88,15 @@ def __getattr__(name):
         )
         return Markup
 
+    if name == "signals_available":
+        import warnings
+
+        warnings.warn(
+            "'signals_available' is deprecated and will be removed in Flask 2.4."
+            " Signals are always available",
+            DeprecationWarning,
+            stacklevel=2,
+        )
+        return True
+
     raise AttributeError(name)

src/flask/signals.py

@@ -1,49 +1,13 @@
+from __future__ import annotations
+
 import typing as t
+import warnings
 
-try:
-    from blinker import Namespace
+from blinker import Namespace
 
-    signals_available = True
-except ImportError:
-    signals_available = False
-
-    class Namespace:  # type: ignore
-        def signal(self, name: str, doc: t.Optional[str] = None) -> "_FakeSignal":
-            return _FakeSignal(name, doc)
-
-    class _FakeSignal:
-        """If blinker is unavailable, create a fake class with the same
-        interface that allows sending of signals but will fail with an
-        error on anything else.  Instead of doing anything on send, it
-        will just ignore the arguments and do nothing instead.
-        """
-
-        def __init__(self, name: str, doc: t.Optional[str] = None) -> None:
-            self.name = name
-            self.__doc__ = doc
-
-        def send(self, *args: t.Any, **kwargs: t.Any) -> t.Any:
-            pass
-
-        def _fail(self, *args: t.Any, **kwargs: t.Any) -> t.Any:
-            raise RuntimeError(
-                "Signalling support is unavailable because the blinker"
-                " library is not installed."
-            ) from None
-
-        connect = connect_via = connected_to = temporarily_connected_to = _fail
-        disconnect = _fail
-        has_receivers_for = receivers_for = _fail
-        del _fail
-
-
-# The namespace for code signals.  If you are not Flask code, do
-# not put signals in here.  Create your own namespace instead.
+# This namespace is only for signals provided by Flask itself.
 _signals = Namespace()
 
-
-# Core signals.  For usage examples grep the source code or consult
-# the API documentation in docs/api.rst as well as docs/signals.rst
 template_rendered = _signals.signal("template-rendered")
 before_render_template = _signals.signal("before-render-template")
 request_started = _signals.signal("request-started")
@@ -54,3 +18,16 @@ appcontext_tearing_down = _signals.signal("appcontext-tearing-down")
 appcontext_pushed = _signals.signal("appcontext-pushed")
 appcontext_popped = _signals.signal("appcontext-popped")
 message_flashed = _signals.signal("message-flashed")
+
+
+def __getattr__(name: str) -> t.Any:
+    if name == "signals_available":
+        warnings.warn(
+            "The 'signals_available' attribute is deprecated and will be removed in"
+            " Flask 2.4. Signals are always available.",
+            DeprecationWarning,
+            stacklevel=2,
+        )
+        return True
+
+    raise AttributeError(name)

tests/test_signals.py

@@ -1,16 +1,5 @@
-import pytest
-
-try:
-    import blinker
-except ImportError:
-    blinker = None
-
 import flask
 
-pytestmark = pytest.mark.skipif(
-    blinker is None, reason="Signals require the blinker library."
-)
-
 
 def test_template_rendered(app, client):
     @app.route("/")

tests/test_testing.py

@@ -10,11 +10,6 @@ from flask.json import jsonify
 from flask.testing import EnvironBuilder
 from flask.testing import FlaskCliRunner
 
-try:
-    import blinker
-except ImportError:
-    blinker = None
-
 
 def test_environ_defaults_from_config(app, client):
     app.config["SERVER_NAME"] = "example.com:1234"
@@ -285,7 +280,6 @@ def test_json_request_and_response(app, client):
         assert rv.get_json() == json_data
 
 
-@pytest.mark.skipif(blinker is None, reason="blinker is not installed")
 def test_client_json_no_app_context(app, client):
     @app.route("/hello", methods=["POST"])
     def hello():