diff --git a/.prev-version b/.prev-version
index cc40bca69..b8eb02635 100644
--- a/.prev-version
+++ b/.prev-version
@@ -1 +1 @@
-8.0
+8.1
diff --git a/NEWS b/NEWS
index f6cdfeeee..df258e21a 100644
--- a/NEWS
+++ b/NEWS
@@ -1,5 +1,8 @@
 GNU coreutils NEWS                                    -*- outline -*-
 
+* Noteworthy changes in release ?.? (????-??-??) [?]
+
+
 * Noteworthy changes in release 8.1 (2009-11-18) [stable]
 
 ** Bug fixes
diff --git a/cfg.mk b/cfg.mk
index 03c3fcec9..1a75170cc 100644
--- a/cfg.mk
+++ b/cfg.mk
@@ -39,7 +39,7 @@ bootstrap-tools = autoconf,automake,gnulib,bison
 # Now that we have better tests, make this the default.
 export VERBOSE = yes
 
-old_NEWS_hash = 785e51bc9af87e7eb004f9ba24a0ca27
+old_NEWS_hash = 2a36ca50a949f959645d9bfac8ec83ce
 
 # Ensure that the list of O_ symbols used to compute O_FULLBLOCK is complete.
 dd = $(srcdir)/src/dd.c