According to the documentation, if the 'compile' built-in function encounters NUL bytes in the compiled source, it raises TypeError, but this is not true:

>>> source = '\u0000'
>>> compile(source, '', 'single')
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module>
ValueError: source code string cannot contain null bytes

It raises ValueError, not TypeError. And IMHO, it's the proper exception to raise...

Here is the patch.

It would be good to add a versionchanged note. Something like:

   .. versionchanged:: 3.5
      Previously, a :exc:`TypeError` was raised [...]

I checked the sources at github and the change was introduced back in 2010, if I recall correctly, so maybe this change happened in 3.2? I can check again and try to determine the exact date and if at all possible the version.

TypeError is raised in 3.4

I checked the Mercurial repository directly, and the change was introduced in 2014: http://bugs.python.org/issue22215

So, yes, looks like a 3.5 change and the versionchanged note suggested by Berker is a great idea!

Updated patch.

New changeset 0cfac9efd895 by Berker Peksag in branch '3.5':
Issue #26401: Fix compile() documentation
https://hg.python.org/cpython/rev/0cfac9efd895

New changeset 45cf82f424ce by Berker Peksag in branch 'default':
Issue #26401: Fix compile() documentation
https://hg.python.org/cpython/rev/45cf82f424ce

Thanks!

Thanks to you, Berker, and SilentGhost, for applying and preparing the patch!