10 Outdated Python Modules You Should Stop Using Immediately

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10 Outdated Python Modules You Should Stop Using Immediately

Python has come a long way, and so has its ecosystem. What once used to be the standard choice is now outdated, buggy, or outright deprecated. Still, many developers unknowingly use these modules — either out of habit or because of legacy codebases.

In this article, we’ll look at 10 outdated Python modules that you should stop using immediately. For each one, we’ll show what not to use — and what to use instead, with clean, modern code examples.

1. urllib (legacy version)

Clunky syntax, no connection pooling, and poor error handling.

import urllib.request 
 
url = "https://httpbin.org/get" 
response = urllib.request.urlopen(url) 
data = response.read() 
print(data)

Use instead: requests

import requests 
 
response = requests.get("https://httpbin.org/get") 
print(response.text)

2. optparse

Deprecated in favor of argparse, which is more flexible and powerful.

from optparse import OptionParser 
 
parser = OptionParser() 
parser.add_option("-n", "--name", dest="name") 
(options, args) = parser.parse_args() 
print(f"Hello, {options.name}")

Use instead: argparse

import argparse 
 
parser = argparse.ArgumentParser() 
parser.add_argument("-n", "--name", help="Your name") 
args = parser.parse_args() 
print(f"Hello, {args.name}")

3. SimpleHTTPServer

Python 2 module. Use http.server in Python 3.

python -m SimpleHTTPServer 8000

Use instead: http.server

python -m http.server 8000

4. commands:

Removed in Python 3. Use subprocess for running shell commands.

import commands 
 
output = commands.getoutput("ls -l") 
print(output)

Use instead: subprocess

import subprocess 
 
result = subprocess.run(["ls", "-l"], capture_output=True, text=True) 
print(result.stdout)

5. string (for formatting)

Old % formatting and .format() have been replaced by f-strings in Python 3.6+.

name = "Aashish" 
greeting = "Hello, %s" % name 
print(greeting) 
 
greeting = "Hello, {}".format(name) 
print(greeting)

Use instead: f-strings

greeting = f"Hello, {name}" 
print(greeting)

6. xmlrpclib

Moved to xmlrpc.client in Python 3. XML-RPC itself is largely outdated.

import xmlrpclib 
 
proxy = xmlrpclib.ServerProxy("http://localhost:8000/") 
print(proxy.ping())

Use instead: xmlrpc.client

import xmlrpc.client 
 
proxy = xmlrpc.client.ServerProxy("http://localhost:8000/") 
print(proxy.ping())

7. cPickle

Merged into pickle in Python 3. Same performance, better interface.

import cPickle 
 
data = {"name": "Alice"} 
serialized = cPickle.dumps(data)

Use instead: pickle

import pickle 
 
data = {"name": "Aashish"} 
serialized = pickle.dumps(data) 
restored = pickle.loads(serialized) 
print(restored)

8. md5 (legacy)

MD5 is insecure and shouldn’t be used for sensitive data hashing.

import md5 
 
hash = md5.new("password").hexdigest()

Use instead: hashlib with sha256 or stronger algorithms

import hashlib 
 
hash = hashlib.sha256(b"password").hexdigest() 
print(hash)

9. imp

Deprecated in favor of importlib.

import imp 
import my_module 
 
imp.reload(my_module)

Use instead: importlib

import importlib 
import my_module 
 
importlib.reload(my_module)

10. time.clock

Deprecated in Python 3.3 and removed in Python 3.8.

import time 
 
start = time.clock() 
# some computation 
end = time.clock() 
print(f"Elapsed: {end - start}")

Use instead: time.perf_counter or time.process_time

start = time.perf_counter() 
# some computation 
end = time.perf_counter() 
print(f"Elapsed: {end - start}")

Final Thoughts

Python has grown into a clean and modern language — but that only helps if you’re using modern tools and libraries. Outdated modules are not only harder to work with, but they can also introduce performance issues and security risks.

Audit your code. Replace these outdated modules with their modern counterparts, and you’ll write better, safer, and more maintainable Python code.

What’s the most outdated module you’ve seen in production? Drop it in the comments!

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