Release 24.2

[pradyunsg]

Coz... It's technically time.

[pradyunsg]

We still have #12613 open, although I'm happy to close that out pending a single bugfix.

If folks are OK with me taking this release over as well, I'd be happy to do the minimal set of a changes to cut a 24.2 with the usual/boring stuff of dependency updates and merging the non-controversial PRs.

[pradyunsg]

There's a new one: two pinned issues for two release cycles at the same time. The RM for these releases is letting things get out of hand eh?

[morotti]

Hello, I would be very grateful if these 2 PRs could be merged for the next release.
They've been approved for some time and make pip install notably faster.
#12803
#12810

[pradyunsg]

Alright, this release is gonna go out this weekend.

[morotti]

hello, i just have one last sizable performance improvement, the PR is approved
it would be fantastic to get that into the release if it's not too late. #12859

[notatallshaw]

Found an issue when testing 24.2, not sure how serious as it might only affect pip development: #12864

[pradyunsg]

A review on #12865 would be appreciated.

[pradyunsg]

OK, looks like it's not this weekend then because of the aforementioned issue.

[ichard26]

FWIW, I am reviewing your PR at the moment, although I suspect that we'd want a proper review from a committer to get the exception handling PR landed anyway.