Release 8.6.0 (#789)

* Release 8.6.0

* [pre-commit.ci] auto fixes from pre-commit.com hooks

for more information, see https://pre-commit.ci

---------

Co-authored-by: pre-commit-ci[bot] <66853113+pre-commit-ci[bot]@users.noreply.github.com>

Author: malikdotexe

CHANGELOG.rst

@@ -4,6 +4,17 @@ Ansible Netcommon Collection Release Notes
 
 .. contents:: Topics
 
+v8.6.0
+======
+
+Minor Changes
+-------------
+
+- Remediate deprecated ``ansible.module_utils.common._collections_compat`` module and replaced with ``collections.abc`` from the Python standard library.
+- Remediate deprecated ``ansible.module_utils.six`` module and replaced it with native Python 3 equivalents like ``pickle``, ``zip``, ``urllib.parse``, ``urllib.error`` etc.
+- Remediate deprecated ``to_text`` and ``to_bytes`` from ``ansible.module_utils._text`` and replaced with ``ansible.module_utils.common.text.converters``.
+- Remediate deprecated ``warnings`` parameter in ``exit_json`` calls by introducing ``emit_warnings`` and ``warn_and_exit`` utility functions in ``plugins/module_utils/network/common/utils.py`` to centralize warning emission logic. The following modules were updated to use ``warn_and_exit`` - ``cli_backup``, ``cli_command``, ``cli_config``, ``cli_restore``, ``grpc_config``, ``grpc_get``, ``netconf_config``, ``netconf_get``, ``netconf_rpc``, ``restconf_config``, ``restconf_get``. ``ResourceModule`` base class in ``rm_base/resource_module.py`` was updated to use ``emit_warnings``, which automatically addresses the deprecation for all downstream collections (e.g. cisco.iosxr, cisco.ios, arista.eos).
+
 v8.5.3
 ======
 

changelogs/changelog.yaml

@@ -1021,3 +1021,25 @@ releases:
       - fix-vlan-parser-empty-list.yaml
       - onboard-codecov.yml
     release_date: "2026-06-12"
+  8.6.0:
+    changes:
+      minor_changes:
+        - Remediate deprecated ``ansible.module_utils.common._collections_compat`` module
+          and replaced with ``collections.abc`` from the Python standard library.
+        - Remediate deprecated ``ansible.module_utils.six`` module and replaced it with
+          native Python 3 equivalents like ``pickle``, ``zip``, ``urllib.parse``, ``urllib.error``
+          etc.
+        - Remediate deprecated ``to_text`` and ``to_bytes`` from ``ansible.module_utils._text``
+          and replaced with ``ansible.module_utils.common.text.converters``.
+        - Remediate deprecated ``warnings`` parameter in ``exit_json`` calls by introducing
+          ``emit_warnings`` and ``warn_and_exit`` utility functions in ``plugins/module_utils/network/common/utils.py``
+          to centralize warning emission logic. The following modules were updated to
+          use ``warn_and_exit`` - ``cli_backup``, ``cli_command``, ``cli_config``, ``cli_restore``,
+          ``grpc_config``, ``grpc_get``, ``netconf_config``, ``netconf_get``, ``netconf_rpc``,
+          ``restconf_config``, ``restconf_get``. ``ResourceModule`` base class in ``rm_base/resource_module.py``
+          was updated to use ``emit_warnings``, which automatically addresses the deprecation
+          for all downstream collections (e.g. cisco.iosxr, cisco.ios, arista.eos).
+    fragments:
+      - remediate_deprecated_warnings.yaml
+      - tox_skip_cleanup.yml
+    release_date: "2026-07-08"

changelogs/fragments/remediate_deprecated_warnings.yaml

@@ -24,4 +24,4 @@ build_ignore:
   - sonar-project.properties
   - codecov.yml
   - .github/
-version: 8.5.3
+version: 8.6.0