[ANNOUNCE] Git for Windows 2.44.0-rc0

[Johannes Schindelin]

Dear Git users,

I hereby announce that Git for Windows 2.44.0-rc0 is available from:

https://github.com/git-for-windows/git/releases/tag/v2.44.0-rc0.windows.1

Changes since Git for Windows v2.43.0 (November 20th 2023)

Git for Windows will drop support for Windows 7 and for Windows 8 in
the next versions, see the announcement of MSYS2 on which Git for
Windows relies for components such as Bash and Perl.

Please also note that the 32-bit variant of Git for Windows is
deprecated; Its last official release is planned for 2025.

New Features

* Comes with Git v2.44.0-rc0.
* Comes with gnupg v2.2.42.
* Comes with libfido2 v1.14.0.
* Comes with the MSYS2 runtime (Git for Windows flavor) based on
Cygwin v3.4.10.
* Comes with Perl v5.38.2.
* Git for Windows learned to detect and use native Windows support
for ANSI sequences, which allows using 24-bit colors in terminal
windows.
* Comes with Git LFS v3.4.1.
* The repository viewer Tig that is included in Git for Windows can
now be called also directly from PowerShell/CMD.
* Comes with OpenSSH v9.6.P1.
* Comes with Bash v5.2.26.
* Comes with GNU TLS v3.8.3.
* Comes with OpenSSL v3.2.1.
* Comes with cURL v8.6.0.
* Comes with GNU Privacy Guard v2.4.4.

Bug Fixes

* The 32-bit variant of Git for Windows was missing some MSYS2
runtime updates, which was addressed; Do note 32-bit support is
phased out.
* The Git for Windows installer showed cut-off text in some setups.
This has been fixed.
* The git credential-manager --help command previously would not find
a page to display in the web browser, which has been fixed.

Git-2.44.0-rc0-64-bit.exe | b3674c6a4fc010dda9065130e06d9a3c8a4b900d2c3b2bdf8183cc47919940a4
Git-2.44.0-rc0-32-bit.exe | 344039b0f71bcd07a19747ec58944cadc175c24f37365e4282d60cc77c77687d
PortableGit-2.44.0-rc0-64-bit.7z.exe | b5b29161c2f80d7b0b9183fff274f545f0c4290e9ce1ef820107da44bf424a07
PortableGit-2.44.0-rc0-32-bit.7z.exe | d1b6c533e5ec7df93870c085b960ad2112a44e1fc9d52cd97c530984892e5cb8
MinGit-2.44.0-rc0-64-bit.zip | e3e2d8f601bb80b6472cd9d58a3ca7704f245b015e236d9b56231b4ced08169f
MinGit-2.44.0-rc0-32-bit.zip | 953c76671644727df28f1b78a80c97266a25d62857afa36e7aacc88ff365fb97
MinGit-2.44.0-rc0-busybox-64-bit.zip | c65698f812ba3090215591978bdd62523922fcaaca31d8fdcaf27c6b75ec8ec1
MinGit-2.44.0-rc0-busybox-32-bit.zip | d614f5b893c8d8784c8e78c22470540eb050946500e57aac65e08e4c403510eb
Git-2.44.0-rc0-64-bit.tar.bz2 | 4ad88d90e553cf31b90381c1ca880509c7c51c91e330ea1b9b73733f31598eee
Git-2.44.0-rc0-32-bit.tar.bz2 | 28f4fa7ff42bd210e944173417f6efcf3b055bfb0ef149941ced91f03ab1560d

Ciao,
Johannes

[Junio C Hamano]

Impressive set of updates. Thanks.