Prepare release version 7.4.4

Author: pytestbot

Diff for: changelog/11091.doc.rst

@@ -6,6 +6,7 @@ Release announcements
    :maxdepth: 2
 
 
+   release-7.4.4
    release-7.4.3
    release-7.4.2
    release-7.4.1

Diff for: changelog/11140.bugfix.rst

@@ -0,0 +1,20 @@
+pytest-7.4.4
+=======================================
+
+pytest 7.4.4 has just been released to PyPI.
+
+This is a bug-fix release, being a drop-in replacement. To upgrade::
+
+  pip install --upgrade pytest
+
+The full changelog is available at https://docs.pytest.org/en/stable/changelog.html.
+
+Thanks to all of the contributors to this release:
+
+* Bruno Oliveira
+* Ran Benita
+* Zac Hatfield-Dodds
+
+
+Happy testing,
+The pytest Development Team

Diff for: changelog/11572.bugfix.rst

@@ -28,6 +28,31 @@ with advance notice in the **Deprecations** section of releases.
 
 .. towncrier release notes start
 
+pytest 7.4.4 (2023-12-31)
+=========================
+
+Bug Fixes
+---------
+
+- `#11140 <https://github.com/pytest-dev/pytest/issues/11140>`_: Fix non-string constants at the top of file being detected as docstrings on Python>=3.8.
+
+
+- `#11572 <https://github.com/pytest-dev/pytest/issues/11572>`_: Handle an edge case where :data:`sys.stderr` and :data:`sys.__stderr__` might already be closed when :ref:`faulthandler` is tearing down.
+
+
+- `#11710 <https://github.com/pytest-dev/pytest/issues/11710>`_: Fixed tracebacks from collection errors not getting pruned.
+
+
+- `#7966 <https://github.com/pytest-dev/pytest/issues/7966>`_: Removed unhelpful error message from assertion rewrite mechanism when exceptions are raised in ``__iter__`` methods. Now they are treated un-iterable instead.
+
+
+
+Improved Documentation
+----------------------
+
+- `#11091 <https://github.com/pytest-dev/pytest/issues/11091>`_: Updated documentation to refer to hyphenated options: replaced ``--junitxml`` with ``--junit-xml`` and ``--collectonly`` with ``--collect-only``.
+
+
 pytest 7.4.3 (2023-10-24)
 =========================
 

Diff for: changelog/11710.bugfix.rst

@@ -22,7 +22,7 @@ Install ``pytest``
 .. code-block:: bash
 
     $ pytest --version
-    pytest 7.4.3
+    pytest 7.4.4
 
 .. _`simpletest`: