OSGeo/grass 8.5.0RC1

GRASS 8.5.0RC1

on GitHub

The GRASS 8.5.0RC1 release provides more than 2515 improvements and fixes with respect to the release 8.4.2. The release includes the refreshed branding from "GRASS GIS" to "GRASS" and a new logo.

Highlights

• New grass.tools Python API to call GRASS tools as Python functions, with direct NumPy array and raster pack I/O
• Completely new documentation rewritten in Markdown and rendered with MkDocs
• Parallelization added to r.mapcalc, r.texture, r.horizon (raster mode), and v.surf.rst cross-validation, with the nprocs parameter extended to r.blend, r.grow, r.mapcalc.simple, and i.image.mosaic
• Added JSON output across dozens of tools (g.list, g.region, r.info, r.univar, r.stats, r.report, v.info, v.what, v.db.connect, and many more)
• New r.smooth.edgepreserve tool for edge-preserving raster smoothing
• v.class and d.vect.thematic: "discontinuities" algorithm fixed and reenabled
• Expanded grass.jupyter: query button and drawing of simple geometries in InteractiveMap, interactive computational region updates, parallelization in TimeSeriesMap and SeriesMap, and a save() method for Map3D
• Multiple masks per mapset, driven internally via the GRASS_MASK environment variable, with a new r.mask.status tool for reporting mask state, respected by r.mask
• RegionManager and MaskManager context managers in grass.script for scoped region and mask changes
• GUI improvements: projects can be added directly in the Data Catalog, column statistics can be computed on SQL-filtered or interactively selected rows in the attribute table manager, the Python editor is now dockable, the command history panel supports copying commands, and the Graphical Modeler variable syntax changed from %variable to %{variable}
• Conda package now available as an installation option
• CMake support for building GRASS and addons, alongside the existing Autotools build, including native Windows builds with the MSVC compiler
• Fixed more than 500 security issues reported by Coverity Scan
• Updated requirements: GDAL 3.7+, PROJ 9.0+, C++17, Autoconf 2.72, Python 3.10+, and the CBLAS and LAPACKE C interface for BLAS and LAPACK

New Addon Tools

• i.hyper (toolset): Hyperspectral data processing — import, preprocessing, visualization, and export
• i.sam2: Image segmentation using SAMGeo with text prompts
• r.buildvrt.gdal: Build GDAL Virtual Rasters (VRT) over GRASS raster maps
• r.colors.qml: Apply the style (color, category) from a QML file
• r.colors.toqml: Export GRASS raster colors and category labels to a QGIS .qml style file
• r.curvenumber: SCS curve number lookup from land cover, hydrologic soil group, hydrologic condition, and antecedent runoff
• r.earthworks: Terrain modeling with cut and fill operations
• r.gravity.terrain: Calculate gravity terrain corrections
• r.hand: Height Above Nearest Drainage (HAND) analysis and flood inundation mapping
• r.hydrobasin: Delineate large numbers of watersheds with a memory-efficient OpenMP parallel algorithm
• r.in.vect: Import an external vector layer as a raster layer
• r.lfp: Compute longest flow paths with a memory-efficient OpenMP parallel algorithm
• r.manning: Convert a land cover raster to a Manning's roughness coefficient raster
• r.maxent.setup: Install Maxent into the addon directory (helper for r.maxent.predict and r.maxent.train)
• r.runoff: Compute runoff depth, volume, and peak discharge using the SCS Curve Number method
• r.slopeunits (toolset): Create, clean, and calculate metrics for slope units
• r.stone: Stone rockfall analysis tool
• r.timeofconcentration: Compute time of concentration using the Kirpich equation
• r.windfetch: Compute wind fetch, the length of water over which wind blows without obstruction
• t.stac (toolset): Explore and ingest SpatioTemporal Asset Catalogs (STAC)
• v.surf.rst.cv: Cross-validation to optimize v.surf.rst tension and smoothing parameters

Monthly Financial Supporters

OpenPlains Inc., Luis Bojórquez, Mark Pearson

New: To contribute to GRASS financially, use NumFOCUS.

What's Changed

Tools

• d.frame: Fix bare except clause by @arohanajit in #4597
• d.mon: Fix SIM115 linter warnings by using context managers for file operations by @arohanajit in #5015
• d.rast.edit: Fixed E722 in d.rast.edit/ by @arohanajit in #4568
• d.rast.edit: Use raster mask, not uppercase MASK by @wenzeslaus in #5001
• d.shade: Added flag to respect null values by @cwhite911 in #6715
• d.vect.chart: fix -l legend output format by @Abhi-d-gr8 in #6927
• d.vect: Fix typo in documentation example by @chaedri in #5876
• db.columns: Add JSON support by @NishantBansal2003 in #6042
• db.columns: added format=list and format=csv by @gulshan-123 in #6971
• db.columns: added support for -e to print more column information by @gulshan-123 in #6933
• db.connect: Add JSON support by @NishantBansal2003 in #6059
• db.connect: Add test file by @NishantBansal2003 in #6052
• db.describe: add JSON support by @kritibirda in #4021
• db.describe: fix illegal memory access report by @kritibirda in #4202
• db.in.ogr: Fix SIM115: Use context managers for file operations by @arohanajit in #5537
• db.out.ogr: Removed unused variable by @arohanajit in #4617
• db.select: Adding JSON and CSV support by @gulshan-123 in #6728
• Code quality improvements by @ShubhamDesai #5450 #6471 #6206 #4795 #5488 #3927 #3923 #4041 #5604 #3979 #6177 #3922 #3980 #3918 #3878 #3852 #4260 #6138 #5996 #4056 #6498 #6048 #6045 #4359 #6342 #4219 #5566 #4079 #4022 #3958 #5222 #4388 #4093 #6466 #4299 #5489 #3973 #3974 #4023 #4153 #4060 #6504 #4685 #6108 #4307 #4004 #4816 #4151 #6107 #5491 #4433 #5396 #6147 #6336 #4532 #6149 #4150 #5203 #6011 #6427 #6279 #4098 #4088 #6277 #5904 #6424 #4087 #4005 #6064 #3966 #6368 #3970 #6507 #4434 #5517 #4752 #4141 #4114 #4006 #5564 #4065 #4094 #6326 #4524 #6271 #6370 #6439 #6312 #4463 #6207 #4415 #5608 #6425
• Fix resource leak issues by @ShubhamDesai in #4959 #5513 #5033 #5273 #4496 #5276 #6202 #5512 #4966 #4868 #5371 #4664 #5079 #6467 #4464 #4678 #4819 #4869 #4369 #6470 #4505 #5261 #6359 #6385 #5449 #6358 #5301 #4605 #6224 #5014 #4677 #5397 #5496 #5029 #4861 #4817 #5910 #5143 #4663 #6505 #5400 #4993 #5130 #4687 #4607 #5576 #4867 #5455 #4734 #4497 #5260 #4423 #4625 #5972 #6222 #4771 #5448 #5129 #6423 #6176 #4422 #4955 #4729 #5012 #5961 #5303 #5515 #4506 #5967 #5964 #6209 #4508 #5275 #4735 #4991 #4820 #4753 #5144 #4457 #6360 #5611 #5274 #4320 #5028 #4498 #4965 #4802 #4461 #4957 #6221 #4730 #4389 #5379

Note that while we tried to represent all the changes here, with the number of changes, some need to be hidden and starting from this point, GitHub interface requires us to have a mixture of PR links and numbers. Besides GitHub's commit comparison link, you can also view the full changelog attached to the release.

Graphical User Interface

• EPSG code source: replace epsg.io with spatialreference.org by @neteler in https://github.com/OSGeo/grass/pull/4535
• Included Mapvalidator in forms.py to check valid raster output names by @bluedotblue in https://github.com/OSGeo/grass/pull/6433
• add functions for disabling processing events about mapset content changes in datacatalog by @petrasovaa in https://github.com/OSGeo/grass/pull/6369
• do not remove parameter value on dialog update event by @landam in https://github.com/OSGeo/grass/pull/5760
• fix ColumnSorterMixin regression by @rohannallamadge in https://github.com/OSGeo/grass/pull/4310
• fix crashing due to File menu translation issues by @petrasovaa in https://github.com/OSGeo/grass/pull/4513
• fix for Python3.13 by @petrasovaa in https://github.com/OSGeo/grass/pull/4653
• fix hiding input/output fields from import dialogs on Windows by @petrasovaa in https://github.com/OSGeo/grass/pull/6309
• fix verbose checkbox behavior in tool dialogs by @petrasovaa in https://github.com/OSGeo/grass/pull/4257
• gmodeler fix adding tool by @landam in https://github.com/OSGeo/grass/pull/4309
• in data catalog don't use restrictions, add project instead of database by @petrasovaa in https://github.com/OSGeo/grass/pull/6405
• make Python editor dockable by @landam in https://github.com/OSGeo/grass/pull/5733
• prepare for markdown documentation by @petrasovaa in https://github.com/OSGeo/grass/pull/5066
• propagate previously defined where option value by @landam in https://github.com/OSGeo/grass/pull/5747
• gui(core.layerlist): Fix returning active layers in GetSelectedLayers() by @echoix in https://github.com/OSGeo/grass/pull/4913
• gui(nviz): Type hinting to the nviz library wrapper and various related improvements by @echoix in https://github.com/OSGeo/grass/pull/4899
• gui(nviz.wxnviz): Add simple type hints not needing any imports by @echoix in https://github.com/OSGeo/grass/pull/4880
• gui(web_services): Fix not all arguments converted during string formatting by @echoix in https://github.com/OSGeo/grass/pull/5136
• Add Copy command feature on right-click to GUI History panel by @aniket2405 in https://github.com/OSGeo/grass/pull/4927
• Add fix for wxGUI Data import Python error by @ww2406 in https://github.com/OSGeo/grass/pull/4504
• Add type hints to bound WizardEvent handlers by @echoix in https://github.com/OSGeo/grass/pull/4891
• Add types for lmgr constructor argument of GLWindow (3D) and MapPanel (2D) by @echoix in https://github.com/OSGeo/grass/pull/4877
• Early exit from functions or loops by @echoix in https://github.com/OSGeo/grass/pull/4916
• Fix SIM115 and FLY002 linting issues in iclass frame module by @arohanajit in #5200
• Fix possibly indexing None in psmap.utils.convertRGB by @echoix in https://github.com/OSGeo/grass/pull/4875
• Fix possibly unbound variables in psmap.utils.BBoxAfterRotation by @echoix in https://github.com/OSGeo/grass/pull/4873

Python

• pygrass.vector.table.DBlinks - improve error messages by @pesekon2 in https://github.com/OSGeo/grass/pull/5745
• ctypesgen: Add 'bool' to ctypes type map, needed for C23 by @nilason in https://github.com/OSGeo/grass/pull/5621
• ctypesgen: Add /Zc:preprocessor flag for MSVC compiler in ctypesgen preprocessor by @dudaka in https://github.com/OSGeo/grass/pull/6371
• ctypesgen: Fix ctypesgen build issues on Windows by @dudaka in https://github.com/OSGeo/grass/pull/6307
• ctypesgen: add MSVC compiler support to ctypesgen parser by @dudaka in https://github.com/OSGeo/grass/pull/6276
• grass.app: Add internal CLI with argparse subcommands by @wenzeslaus in https://github.com/OSGeo/grass/pull/5590
• grass.app: Add mapset create subcommand by @wenzeslaus in https://github.com/OSGeo/grass/pull/6462
• grass.app: Add project create subcommand by @wenzeslaus in https://github.com/OSGeo/grass/pull/6441
• grass.app: Always set path to script addons by @wenzeslaus in https://github.com/OSGeo/grass/pull/6639
• grass.app: Do env var setup in RuntimePaths by @wenzeslaus in https://github.com/OSGeo/grass/pull/6482
• grass.app: Move ISIS integration to the library by @wenzeslaus in https://github.com/OSGeo/grass/pull/4169
• grass.app: Move lock to mapset subcommand by @wenzeslaus in https://github.com/OSGeo/grass/pull/6437
• grass.app: Move mapset locking to library by @wenzeslaus in https://github.com/OSGeo/grass/pull/4158
• grass.app: Refactor PATH setup in grass init script and grass.script.setup by @wenzeslaus in https://github.com/OSGeo/grass/pull/3694
• grass.app: Separate env modification from path retrieval by @wenzeslaus in https://github.com/OSGeo/grass/pull/6469
• grass.app: Use None as default value, hide os.environ by @wenzeslaus in https://github.com/OSGeo/grass/pull/6101
• grass.app: Use env in the lock program call by @wenzeslaus in https://github.com/OSGeo/grass/pull/5970
• grass.app: Use sys.executable as a GRASS_PYTHON default by @wenzeslaus in https://github.com/OSGeo/grass/pull/5441
• grass.benchmark: Compute speedup and enable plotting speedup/efficiency by @cyliang368 in https://github.com/OSGeo/grass/pull/3835
• grass.exceptions: Do not translate exception text by @wenzeslaus in https://github.com/OSGeo/grass/pull/6362
• grass.exceptions: make CalledModuleError pickleable for multiprocessing by @petrasovaa in https://github.com/OSGeo/grass/pull/6275
• grass.gunittest: Add typing annotations to code that isn’t from unittest by @echoix in https://github.com/OSGeo/grass/pull/6230
• grass.gunittest: Allow floating point for --min-success argument by @echoix in https://github.com/OSGeo/grass/pull/5278
• grass.gunittest: Avoid printing errors twice by @wenzeslaus in https://github.com/OSGeo/grass/pull/6414
• grass.gunittest: Exclude test files with tests ran with pytest by @echoix in https://github.com/OSGeo/grass/pull/6523
• grass.gunittest: Fix SIM115 using context managers to open files by @echoix in https://github.com/OSGeo/grass/pull/4338

Documentation and Messages

• Add title field to frontmatter and remove H1 headings by @saket0187 in https://github.com/OSGeo/grass/pull/6906
• Fixes missing Parameter tabs in documentation by @saket0187 in https://github.com/OSGeo/grass/pull/6864
• Add Markdown files by @wenzeslaus in https://github.com/OSGeo/grass/pull/5057
• Add NumFOCUS to README by @petrasovaa in https://github.com/OSGeo/grass/pull/5786
• Convert HTML to Markdown by @wenzeslaus in https://github.com/OSGeo/grass/pull/5064
• Enable Markdown doc compilation by @wenzeslaus in https://github.com/OSGeo/grass/pull/5048
• Enable MathJax rendering for equations in MkDocs documentation by @gulshan-123 in https://github.com/OSGeo/grass/pull/6703
• Fix Flake8 issues in example files by @arohanajit in #4353
• Fix jupyter.Map3D documentation by @RemoteCMeijer in https://github.com/OSGeo/grass/pull/5912
• Fix parson lib test first keyword by @wenzeslaus in https://github.com/OSGeo/grass/pull/5060
• Generate zero, not type in Python examples by @wenzeslaus in https://github.com/OSGeo/grass/pull/5855
• Hide only general and misc keywords in index by @wenzeslaus in https://github.com/OSGeo/grass/pull/5056
• Ignore F401 in dialogs.py by @arohanajit in #4488
• Improve jupyter notebook documentation by @petrasovaa in https://github.com/OSGeo/grass/pull/5452
• Redefine r.mapcalc build deps for color table thumbnails by @wenzeslaus in https://github.com/OSGeo/grass/pull/5098
• Remove URL param from standard options doc generator by @echoix in https://github.com/OSGeo/grass/pull/6034
• Remove extra space by @wenzeslaus in https://github.com/OSGeo/grass/pull/5059
• Replace grass.script by grass.tools by @wenzeslaus in https://github.com/OSGeo/grass/pull/6111
• Reword text to be less verbose in r.geomorphon by @gregorywaynepower in https://github.com/OSGeo/grass/pull/5034
• Updated citation file CITATION.cff by @baharmon in https://github.com/OSGeo/grass/pull/6039
• Use CRS instead of SRS by @wenzeslaus in https://github.com/OSGeo/grass/pull/6264
• Use lowercase for 2D raster mask by @wenzeslaus in https://github.com/OSGeo/grass/pull/4401
• Use lowercase for 2D raster mask by @wenzeslaus in https://github.com/OSGeo/grass/pull/4495
• Use lowercase for 2D raster mask by @wenzeslaus in https://github.com/OSGeo/grass/pull/5000
• Use lowercase for 2D raster mask by @wenzeslaus in https://github.com/OSGeo/grass/pull/5009
• Use lowercase for mask by @wenzeslaus in https://github.com/OSGeo/grass/pull/4529

Libraries and General Functionality

• grass_proj: use OSRIsSame to compare CRSs by @metzm in https://github.com/OSGeo/grass/pull/6579
• lib/arraystats: re-enable "Discont" algorithm by @nilason in https://github.com/OSGeo/grass/pull/5529
• lib/cairodriver: Fix unchecked return value from library by @ShubhamDesai in #5565
• lib/cdhc: Cdhc_alnfac, fix bound condition by @lbartoletti in https://github.com/OSGeo/grass/pull/3873
• lib/cdhc: Fixed uninitialized variable warnings in Cdhc_dmax by @ShubhamDesai in #3995
• lib/db: Fix copy into fixed size buffer issue in SQLite driver by @ShubhamDesai in #4255
• lib/db: remove deprecated implementation of db_get_login() and replace it with that of db_get_login2() by @ymdatta in #4302
• lib/db: remove deprecated implementation of db_set_login() and replace it with that of db_set_login2() by @ymdatta in #4308
• lib/display: D_show_conversions() %.1f to %g where values likely to be smaller than 0.0 by @HamishB in https://github.com/OSGeo/grass/pull/4263
• lib/display: Fix Copy Buffer Size issue in tran_colr.c by @ShubhamDesai in #4851
• lib/driver: Fix Copy Buffer size issues in font2.c by @ShubhamDesai in #6208
• lib/external/parson: complete the wrapping of parson by @nilason in https://github.com/OSGeo/grass/pull/6434
• lib/external/parson: hide parson symbols on linkage by @nilason in https://github.com/OSGeo/grass/pull/6432
• lib/gis: Add a helper function to determine the number of threads for OpenMP by @cyliang368 in https://github.com/OSGeo/grass/pull/3929
• lib/gis: Add portable G_strlcat function by @nilason in https://github.com/OSGeo/grass/pull/4304
• lib/gis: Add portable G_strlcpy function by @lbartoletti in https://github.com/OSGeo/grass/pull/4101
• lib/gis: Fix Dereference after NULL check issue in parser_wps.c by @ShubhamDesai in #6426
• lib/gis: Fix Dereference after null check issue in parser.c by @ShubhamDesai in #6334
• lib/gis: Fix Uninitialized Variable Issue in error.c by @ShubhamDesai in #6203
• lib/gis: Fix out of scope memory access error in file_name function call by @ymdatta in #4650
• lib/gis: Fix uninitialized variable issue in env.c by @ShubhamDesai in #3892
• lib/gis: Refactor va_list usage in debug module by @ymdatta in #4702

Startup, Initialization, and Environment

• Add retries and timeout to mapset locking by @wenzeslaus in https://github.com/OSGeo/grass/pull/5443
• Add typing annotations where appropriate by @echoix in https://github.com/OSGeo/grass/pull/5482
• Apply isort to imports by @echoix in https://github.com/OSGeo/grass/pull/5478
• Enable subcommands for the main grass command by @wenzeslaus in https://github.com/OSGeo/grass/pull/6442
• Fix F401 Linter Warnings by Replacing Wildcard Imports with Explicit Imports in init.py by @arohanajit in #4647
• Fix SyntaxWarning: invalid escape sequence in grass.py by @dudaka in https://github.com/OSGeo/grass/pull/6239
• Rename often shadowed internal helper function f() to fw() by @echoix in https://github.com/OSGeo/grass/pull/5480
• Simply import grass, try harder if it fails by @wenzeslaus in https://github.com/OSGeo/grass/pull/6393
• Update ASCII art from GRASS GIS to GRASS by @echoix in https://github.com/OSGeo/grass/pull/5694
• Use context managers for opening files by @echoix in https://github.com/OSGeo/grass/pull/5479
• Use mask, not MASK in shell prompt by @wenzeslaus in https://github.com/OSGeo/grass/pull/5003
• Use pathlib Path.read_text for readfile in the main executable by @echoix in https://github.com/OSGeo/grass/pull/4234
• Use pathlib Path.write_text for writefile in the main executable by @echoix in https://github.com/OSGeo/grass/pull/4235
• Change Location to Project in first-time user messages by @ecodiv in https://github.com/OSGeo/grass/pull/4193

Translations, Internationalization, and Localization

• Replace strings constructed by parts with complete strings by @echoix in #5938
• fix translations and duplicate messsages in po files by @neteler in #4722 #4859
• Use context manager for opening files in locale/grass_po_stats by @echoix in #6192
• Multiple translations update from OSGeo Weblate by @osgeoweblate

Windows

• Fix comment in msvc/fcntl.h by @HuidaeCho in https://github.com/OSGeo/grass/pull/5991
• Move msvc/gettimeofday.c to msvc/sys by @HuidaeCho in https://github.com/OSGeo/grass/pull/6110
• Use the same M_PI_4 value to avoid redefinition warnings by @HuidaeCho in https://github.com/OSGeo/grass/pull/5771
• Add Jupyter dependencies to GRASS daily builds by @lindakarlovska in https://github.com/OSGeo/grass/pull/6289
• Apply OSGeo4W patches for PostgreSQL by @echoix in https://github.com/OSGeo/grass/pull/4996
• Do not pause in .bat and fix executable name in test on Windows by @echoix in https://github.com/OSGeo/grass/pull/5624
• Merge msvc/open.c and msvc/creat.c into msvc/fcntl.c by @HuidaeCho in https://github.com/OSGeo/grass/pull/5201
• Update NSIS standalone installer: Unicode, High-DPI, GRASS GIS to GRASS, typo by @echoix in https://github.com/OSGeo/grass/pull/5685
• Wrapper header files for MSVC by @HuidaeCho in https://github.com/OSGeo/grass/pull/5194
• Add aliases S_IRUSR and S_IWUSR for _S_IREAD and _S_IWRITE by @echoix in https://github.com/OSGeo/grass/pull/5957
• Trim trailing whitespace in R batch files by @echoix in https://github.com/OSGeo/grass/pull/4790
• patch from OSGeo4W applied by @landam in https://github.com/OSGeo/grass/pull/4121

macOS

• update default dependencies by @nilason in https://github.com/OSGeo/grass/pull/5622
• update default dependencies, add gdal package by @nilason in https://github.com/OSGeo/grass/pull/6258
• use conda in stead of mamba to install deps by @nilason in https://github.com/OSGeo/grass/pull/5626

Packaging, Configuration, Portability, and Compilation

CMake support is based on original work by Rashad Kanavath in 2020 (#289), following up with substantial contributions by Huidae Cho, Nicklas Larsson, Markus Neteler, Loïc Bartoletti, Aaron Saw, Mahesh Maddineni, Kandel Nelson, Edouard Choinière, Corey White and Matthias Kuhn. See Changelog for details.

• Add colortables and other files to addon doc by @wenzeslaus in #5316
• Allow separate build of Markdown and HTML keywords by @wenzeslaus in #5177
• Fix %lu *printf format string to %zu for size_t by @HuidaeCho in #5799
• Fix basic gallery build issues for Markdown by @wenzeslaus in #5247
• Remove BLAS and LAPACK from config by @wenzeslaus in #5101
• Replace Python glob1 by glob in doc build code by @wenzeslaus in #6472
• Skip updating non-existing fontcap on install when cross-compiling by @HuidaeCho in #6896
• correctly report detected LFS state at the end of configure run by @marisn in #6537
• define more typical HAVE_PTHREAD if pthreads library can be used by @marisn in #6479
• fix g.extension test by @petrasovaa in #5102
• move config.h.in customizations to configure.ac by @marisn in #6509
• refactor grass.py in preparation for FHS by @nilason in #5933

Docker

• Add liblapacke-dev package to Ubuntu builds by @echoix in #4371
• Address build warnings in Ubuntu Dockerfile by @ninsbl in #4090
• Change Debian base image to 12.5-slim by @echoix in #6373
• Do not ignore certain git folder for docker build by @mmacata in #4827
• Downgrade PDAL to 2.7.1 in ubuntu_wxgui by @echoix in #3946
• Enable cache for Docker builds by @echoix in #3821
• Fix git clone path in Dockerfile for gdal-grass by @echoix in #5111
• Fixing CFLAG for configuration on Apple ARM M1/2/3 by @pwt-cd in #5055
• Remove scikit-learn from Alpine test by @wenzeslaus in #6394
• Remove unused demolocation test by @wenzeslaus in #6395
• Revert failing cleaning steps in Ubuntu Dockerfile by @echoix in #3830
• Sort package lists and configure options in Dockerfiles by @echoix in #4373
• Update Ubuntu to 24.04 by @ninsbl in #6410
• Use debian:bookworm-slim image, with date suffix instead of debian:stable by @echoix in #3807
• Use only native Python API, set only necessary variables by @neteler in #3819 #3822
• add package to docker image to be able to run gui by @benaloha in #5476
• build GUI from ubuntu using build-args by @ninsbl in #6800
• build gdal-grass by @nilason in #5106 #5115 #5117 #5108
• compile core Ubuntu 24.04 dependencies from source by @ninsbl in #6481
• copy module_items.xml for g.search.modules by @ninsbl in #6578
• define GISBASE for Alpine by @landam and @nilason in #4130 #5137
• fix missing libraries in ubuntu wxgui Dockerfile by @neteler in #4268
• fix various syntax warnings by @neteler in #5481
• re-structure build stages for Ubuntu with and without GUI to optimize caching by @ninsbl in #6534

Contributing and Management

• AI usage policy by @petrasovaa in #6941
• Improve release procedure and increase automation by @wenzeslaus in #3829 #3837 #3795 #3823 #3883 #2963 #3824 #3891 #3876
• Optimize text in release procedure by @neteler in #3882
• add more gitignores and remove accidentally added DS_Store by @petrasovaa in #4995
• update style guide by @petrasovaa in #3790 #3875 #4312 #4207 #5219

New Contributors

• Riya Saxena (@29riyasaxena) made their first contribution in https://github.com/OSGeo/grass/pull/3468
• Chung-Yuan Liang (@cyliang368) made their first contribution in #3786
• Ivan Mincik (@imincik) made their first contribution in https://github.com/OSGeo/grass/pull/3889
• @HamishB made their first contribution in https://github.com/OSGeo/grass/pull/4263
• Arohan Ajit (@arohanajit) made their first contribution in https://github.com/OSGeo/grass/pull/4303
• Rohan (@rohannallamadge) made their first contribution in https://github.com/OSGeo/grass/pull/4310
• Hernán De Angelis (@dhdeangelis) made their first contribution in #4411
• @ww2406 made their first contribution in https://github.com/OSGeo/grass/pull/4504
• Nishant Bansal (@NishantBansal2003) made their first contribution in https://github.com/OSGeo/grass/pull/4590
• Shreshth Malik (@Shreshth-Malik) made their first contribution in #4482
• Emmanuel Ferdman (@emmanuel-ferdman) made their first contribution in https://github.com/OSGeo/grass/pull/4718
• Aniket Shaha (@aniket2405) made their first contribution in https://github.com/OSGeo/grass/pull/4927
• Jayneel Shah (@jayneel-shah18) made their first contribution in #4931
• Smiti Kothari (@codersmiti) made their first contribution in https://github.com/OSGeo/grass/pull/5135
• @luzpaz made their first contribution in https://github.com/OSGeo/grass/pull/5224
• @pwt-cd made their first contribution in https://github.com/OSGeo/grass/pull/5055
• Aterg (@Aterg264) made their first contribution in https://github.com/OSGeo/grass/pull/5325
• Vedant Patel (@Kiraschild) made their first contribution in https://github.com/OSGeo/grass/pull/5539
• Neel Ghoshal (@NeelGhoshal) made their first contribution in https://github.com/OSGeo/grass/pull/5674
• Pratikshya Regmi (@Pratikshya-Regmi) made their first contribution in https://github.com/OSGeo/grass/pull/5673
• Rohan Dhamale (@dvrohan) made their first contribution in #5811
• Marc Meijer (@RemoteCMeijer) made their first contribution in https://github.com/OSGeo/grass/pull/5912
• Dung Ho (@dudaka) made their first contribution in https://github.com/OSGeo/grass/pull/6239
• @bluedotblue made their first contribution in https://github.com/OSGeo/grass/pull/6433
• Arth Parikshit Patel (@ArthPatel1502) made their first contribution in https://github.com/OSGeo/grass/pull/6690
• Joyal Paul (@JoyalMPaul) made their first contribution in #6737
• harshit singh hada (@dehydrated-bear) made their first contribution in https://github.com/OSGeo/grass/pull/6846
• Matthias Kuhn (@m-kuhn) made their first contribution in https://github.com/OSGeo/grass/pull/6868
• Pahal Srivastava (@pahalsrivastava) made their first contribution in https://github.com/OSGeo/grass/pull/6874
• sakirr (@sakirr05) made their first contribution in https://github.com/OSGeo/grass/pull/6897
• @ayushjariyal made their first contribution in https://github.com/OSGeo/grass/pull/6950

Full Changelog: 8.4.2...8.5.0RC1