automated release 2.8.0

added backend time macros support (#855)

release prep 2.7.0 (#851)

automated release 2.6.3

automated release 2.6.2

automated release 2.6.1

automated release 2.6.0

dependencies update (#788)

Signed-off-by: Sriram <[email protected]>
Signed-off-by: dependabot[bot] <[email protected]>
Co-authored-by: Zoltán Bedi <[email protected]>
Co-authored-by: dependabot[bot] <49699333+dependabot[bot]@users.noreply.github.com>

automated release 2.5.0-beta.1

automated release 2.4.0