Dropped support for classifiers subsection handling in setup.cfg (see #952).

docs/setuptools.txt

@@ -2302,10 +2302,10 @@ boilerplate code in some cases.
     long_description = file: README.rst
     keywords = one, two
     license = BSD 3-Clause License
-
-    [metadata.classifiers]
-    Framework :: Django
-    Programming Language :: Python :: 3.5
+    classifiers =
+        Framework :: Django
+        Programming Language :: Python :: 3
+        Programming Language :: Python :: 3.5
 
     [options]
     zip_safe = False
@@ -2398,7 +2398,7 @@ author                                str
 author_email       author-email       str
 maintainer                            str
 maintainer_email   maintainer-email   str
-classifiers        classifier         file:, section, list-comma
+classifiers        classifier         file:, list-comma
 license                               file:, str
 description        summary            file:, str
 long_description   long-description   file:, str

setuptools/config.py

@@ -412,17 +412,6 @@ class ConfigMetadataHandler(ConfigHandler):
             'version': self._parse_version,
         }
 
-    def parse_section_classifiers(self, section_options):
-        """Parses configuration file section.
-
-        :param dict section_options:
-        """
-        classifiers = []
-        for begin, (_, rest) in section_options.items():
-            classifiers.append('%s :%s' % (begin.title(), rest))
-
-        self['classifiers'] = classifiers
-
     def _parse_version(self, value):
         """Parses `version` option value.
 

setuptools/tests/test_config.py

@@ -257,6 +257,7 @@ class TestMetadata:
     def test_classifiers(self, tmpdir):
         expected = set([
             'Framework :: Django',
+            'Programming Language :: Python :: 3',
             'Programming Language :: Python :: 3.5',
         ])
 
@@ -269,19 +270,21 @@ class TestMetadata:
 
         tmpdir.join('classifiers').write(
             'Framework :: Django\n'
+            'Programming Language :: Python :: 3\n'
             'Programming Language :: Python :: 3.5\n'
         )
 
         with get_dist(tmpdir) as dist:
             assert set(dist.metadata.classifiers) == expected
 
-        # From section.
+        # From list notation
         config.write(
-            '[metadata.classifiers]\n'
-            'Framework :: Django\n'
-            'Programming Language :: Python :: 3.5\n'
+            '[metadata]\n'
+            'classifiers =\n'
+            '    Framework :: Django\n'
+            '    Programming Language :: Python :: 3\n'
+            '    Programming Language :: Python :: 3.5\n'
         )
-
         with get_dist(tmpdir) as dist:
             assert set(dist.metadata.classifiers) == expected