[Bug] Release procedure misses steps for updating versions

[wenzeslaus]

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Describe the bug

We are missing a guide for creating branches for new major and minor versions and switching versions (on the release branch and main) when new major or minor version is started.

Highly related (at this point same PR), although possibly separate issue, is updating the hardcoded version at various places in the source code.

Additional context

Some documentation and artifact updates are needed as well which is tracked in #2336.

The branch creation was originally part of the howto_release.md file, however, it got dropped with transition to Git and it is really a separate thing from creating a specific release.

[neteler]

The "creating a branch" snippet has been deleted in 47e02fc12c2a82a443004f3425dd0d816e1d68bb (I darkly recall because it was SVN based and we transitioned to git).

I see two options:

• also delete the ".. see section below at end of file." sentence (my preferred one)
• add a new section about branching in git at bottom.

[wenzeslaus]

I agree that creating a branch is a separate issue and the version updates are (mostly?) relevant for the minor and major versions (only?). Modified description accordingly.

[wenzeslaus]

This needs to happen when branching is done, so it should be addressed in #2963.