New release candidates: ansible-core 2.11.0rc1, ansible-base 2.10.8rc1, ansible 2.9.20rc1, ansible 2.8.20rc1

[Rick Elrod]

Hi all- we're happy to announce the following release candidates:

* ansible-core 2.11.0rc1
* ansible-base 2.10.8rc1
* ansible 2.9.20rc1
* ansible 2.8.20rc1

Several notes:

* ansible 2.8.20rc1 and ansible 2.9.20rc1 both have numerous security fixes
which address several modules logging sensitive data. This flaw has been
assigned CVE-2021-3447. See the changelog (linked below) for more
information.

* This is the final release cycle for ansible 2.8.z, which has received only
security updates since the release of 2.10.0.

* This is the final *bugfix* release cycle for ansible 2.9.z. Ansible 2.9 now
enters the security-only phase (after this release candidate goes to GA), and
only security-critical updates will be shipped from that point forward.

--------------------------

Some information about ansible-core 2.11:

ansible-core 2.11 is a rename of ansible-base. As with ansible-base, it includes
only a minimal, vetted set of modules and plugins, and is extensible through the
use of Ansible Collections. This release of ansible-core includes some new
features and changes that we'd like to highlight below. This list is not
exhaustive:

- As of this release, Python 3.8 is now a *soft requirement* on the
controller. (This release will continue to work with the same versions of
Python as ansible-base 2.10, but ansible-core 2.12 will NOT)

- Role arguments can now be validated at runtime to ensure that roles are used
correctly

- ansible-galaxy now makes use of "resolvelib" for resolving dependencies

- New virtualization facts are now included (as lists), so that administrators
can see all virtual guest and host technologies available to the node

- Playbooks can now be run from collections

- For module authors, module_utils imports are now treated as optional if in
any nested block (such as 'try' or 'if') allowing for implementation of
fallback behavior for module_utils that do not exist in older versions of
Ansible.

We appreciate any and all early adopters and welcome any reports of issues on
GitHub. Happy testing!

--------------------------

How to get it
-------------

$ pip install ansible-core==2.11.0rc1 --user
or
$ pip install ansible-base==2.10.8rc1 --user
or
$ pip install ansible==2.9.20rc1 --user
or
$ pip install ansible==2.8.20rc1 --user

The tar.gz of the releases can be found here:

* ansible-core 2.11.0rc1
https://pypi.python.org/packages/source/a/ansible-core/ansible-core-2.11.0rc1.tar.gz
SHA256: b083664c768eab68a185526aac790dc93ab0aaa58810013d94a991a40c5bdf59

* ansible-base 2.10.8rc1
https://pypi.python.org/packages/source/a/ansible-base/ansible-base-2.10.8rc1.tar.gz
SHA256: 8a69a4e9601156466d6304a9b49604a7ee20ce1618f9cbd187e6bd4dff9e5fd3

* ansible 2.9.20rc1
https://releases.ansible.com/ansible/ansible-2.9.20rc1.tar.gz
SHA256: a0fe1ffcf5d649cb2898bdf4183cc9b60127fdbd736db809772e51199727bce4

* ansible 2.8.20rc1
https://releases.ansible.com/ansible/ansible-2.8.20rc1.tar.gz
SHA256: 917068b89584d82784102df2eb73304af97f0ab02e4856a68ffc75e4d1b94f40


What's new
----------

These release candidates have changelogs available at the following links:

* ansible-core 2.11.0rc1
https://github.com/ansible/ansible/blob/stable-2.11/changelogs/CHANGELOG-v2.11.rst

* ansible-base 2.10.8rc1
https://github.com/ansible/ansible/blob/stable-2.10/changelogs/CHANGELOG-v2.10.rst

* ansible 2.9.20rc1
https://github.com/ansible/ansible/blob/stable-2.9/changelogs/CHANGELOG-v2.9.rst

* ansible 2.8.20rc1
https://github.com/ansible/ansible/blob/stable-2.8/changelogs/CHANGELOG-v2.8.rst


What's the schedule for future releases?
----------------------------------------

* ansible-core 2.11.0rc1 has a second release candidate planned -- if deemed
necessary -- one week from today on 12 April 2021. It is set to go to GA on
26 April 2021.

* ansible-base 2.10.8rc1, ansible 2.9.20rc1, and ansible 2.8.20rc1 are set to go
to GA one week from today.


Porting Help for ansible-core 2.11
----------------------------------

We've published a porting guide at
https://docs.ansible.com/ansible-core/devel/porting_guides/porting_guide_core_2.11.html
to help migrate your content to 2.11.

If you discover any errors or if any of your working playbooks break when you
upgrade to 2.11.0rc1, please use the following link to report the regression:

https://github.com/ansible/ansible/issues/new/choose

In your issue, be sure to mention the version that works and the one that
doesn't.

Thanks!

-Rick Elrod