Release v4.0.0-alpha

[ascjones]

Replaces the yanked 3.1.0 due to issues with supporting both Rust versions < 1.70
and >= 1.70.

If you intend to use cargo-contract with Rust >= 1.70, and deploy to a node with a
version of pallet-contracts at least polkadot-1.0.0, then this is the release to use.

If you still want to compile with 1.69 and target an older version of pallet-contracts
then use the previous 3.0.1 release.

Notable changes:

• Verifiable builds inside a docker container - #1148
• Extrinsics extracted to separate crate - #1181
• Fix building contracts with Rust >= 1.70: enable sign_ext Wasm opcode - #1189

Added

• Standardised verifiable builds - #1148
• Enable Wasm sign_ext #1189
• Expose extrinsics operations as a library - #1181
• Suggest valid message or constructor name, when misspelled - #1162
• Add flag -y as a shortcut for --skip-confirm - #1127
• Add command line argument --max-memory-pages - #1128
• Show Gas consumption by default for dry-runs - #1121

Changed

• Dry-run result output improvements - 1123
• Display build progress with --output-json, print to stderr - 1211
• Update subxt to 0.30.1 with new subxt-signer crate - #1236
• Upgrade wasm-opt to 0.113 - #1188
• Update substrate dependencies - #1149
• Make output format of cargo contract info consistent with other subcommands - #1120
• set minimum supported rust-version to 1.70 - #1241
• [extrinsics] update metadata to substrate-contracts-node 0.29 - #1242

Fixed

• Configure tty output correctly - #1209
• Set lto = "thin" for metadata build to fix linkme on macOS - #1200
• fix(build): An error when running with --lint - #1174
• Dry-run result output improvements - #1123
• feat: use CARGO_ENCODED_RUSTFLAGS instead of RUSTFLAGS - #1124

[ascjones]

https://crates.io/crates/cargo-contract/4.0.0-alpha

[sleepyyj]

@ascjones Could you please add a 4.0.0-alpha tag for the paritytech/contracts-verifiable docker image