can't find a way around it... maybe a new regression test on this.

Python 3.3.3 (v3.3.3:c3896275c0f6, Nov 18 2013, 21:18:40) [MSC v.1600 32 bit (Intel)] on win32
Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
>>> "0x{:0{:d}X}".format(0x0,16)
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module>
ValueError: unmatched '{' in format
>>> "0x{:0{{:d}}X}".format(0x0,16)
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module>
ValueError: Invalid format specifier
>>> "0x{:0{:d}X}".format(0x0,16)
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module>
ValueError: unmatched '{' in format
>>> "0x{:{:d}X}".format(0x0,16)
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module>
ValueError: unmatched '{' in format
>>> "0x{:0{:d}X}".format(0x0,16)
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module>
ValueError: unmatched '{' in format
>>> "0x{:0{:d}x}".format(0x0,16)
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module>
ValueError: unmatched '{' in format
>>>
>>> "{:0{}x}".format(0,16)
'0000000000000000'

"0x{:0{:d}X}".format(0x0,16) and "{:0{}x}".format(0,16)
work with Python 3.1, 3.2 and up to 3.3.2

Amusingly, it also works in 3.4.

According to hg bisect, the regression comes from:

changeset:   83817:6786e681ed58
branch:      3.3
parent:      83812:cd2457463eeb
user:        Benjamin Peterson <benjamin@python.org>
date:        Fri May 17 17:34:30 2013 -0500
files:       Lib/test/test_unicode.py Misc/NEWS Objects/stringlib/unicode_format.h
description:
only recursively expand in the format spec (closes #17644)

This broke a lot of our code, I think that priority needs to be raised to urgent.

my projects are total broken by this, so my temporary solution is to down grade to 3.3.2

somehow we don't have any test to check this before releasing 3.3.3

Hmm, sucks.

Benjamin, can you come up with a fix?  I'll give it a few weeks to wait for more potential regressions and then do a 3.3.4.

New changeset bab7dc2ffc16 by Benjamin Peterson in branch '3.3':
fix format spec recursive expansion (closes #19729)
http://hg.python.org/cpython/rev/bab7dc2ffc16

New changeset e27684eed3b6 by Benjamin Peterson in branch 'default':
merge 3.3 (#19729)
http://hg.python.org/cpython/rev/e27684eed3b6

Sorry about that.

just want to know if there is any tentative schedule to release 3.3.4. the PEP for 3.3 schedule doesn't talk about 3.3.4, so I'm not sure if the decision was to leave latest 3.3 with this broken regression or fix it and release 3.3.4.

New changeset f25d8cbd074a by Martin Panter in branch '3.5':
Issue #25179: Preparatory cleanup of existing docs on string formatting
https://hg.python.org/cpython/rev/f25d8cbd074a

New changeset fe692ee6d19a by Martin Panter in branch '2.7':
Issue #25179: Preparatory cleanup of existing docs on string formatting
https://hg.python.org/cpython/rev/fe692ee6d19a