The compile() function is not able to compile an AST created from code that uses some of the new unpacking generalizations in PEP 448.  Example:

code = '''                                                                     
a = { 'x':1, 'y':2 }
b = { **a, 'z': 3 }
'''

# Works
ccode = compile(code, '', 'exec')

# Crashes
import ast
tree = ast.parse(code)
ccode = compile(tree, '', 'exec')

# ----------------------------------

Error Traceback:

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "bug.py", line 11, in <module>
    ccode = compile(tree, '', 'exec')
ValueError: None disallowed in expression list

Note:  This bug makes it impossible to try generalized unpacking examples interactively in IPython.

Good find, David. Thanks!

Please review the attached patch.

Good catch!  Please file a pull request via bitbucket.

Patch looks good to me. I was initially going to query the changes to the break/continue AST tests, but then realised they were needed to avoid a compile error for break/continue outside a loop now that we ensure the resulting AST can be used to generate code.

Do we not have a test that compiles the entire stdlib using the ast module? We used to have one for the old compiler package. If don't have such a test we should probably add it even if it requires a -u option.

Larry,

I created a PR for you: https://bitbucket.org/larry/cpython350/pull-requests/10/issue-24975-fix-ast-compilation-for-pep/diff

Brett,

Should we do that in a separate issue targeting 3.6 only?

Created issue #24981 to track the test case idea.

Merged.  Please forward-merge to 3.5.1 and 3.6, thanks!

New changeset e9df8543d7bc by Yury Selivanov in branch '3.5':
Issue #24975: Fix AST compilation for PEP 448 syntax.
https://hg.python.org/cpython/rev/e9df8543d7bc

New changeset ea79be5b201e by Yury Selivanov in branch '3.5':
Merge 3.5 heads (issue #24975)
https://hg.python.org/cpython/rev/ea79be5b201e

New changeset 1dcd7f257ed8 by Yury Selivanov in branch 'default':
Merge 3.5 (issue #24975)
https://hg.python.org/cpython/rev/1dcd7f257ed8

Thanks Nick and Larry for code reviews and merge!

Upon writing a proof-of-concept file for #24981, I discovered an stdlib file that gave the same error.

C:/programs/Python35/Lib\distutils/_msvccompiler.py
ValueError: None disallowed in expression list

I presume the applied fix will apply to this also.