diff --git a/.prev-version b/.prev-version
index f99416236..37722ebbc 100644
--- a/.prev-version
+++ b/.prev-version
@@ -1 +1 @@
-7.3
+7.4
diff --git a/NEWS b/NEWS
index df87175df..6f2a401eb 100644
--- a/NEWS
+++ b/NEWS
@@ -1,5 +1,8 @@
 GNU coreutils NEWS                                    -*- outline -*-
 
+* Noteworthy changes in release ?.? (????-??-??) [?]
+
+
 * Noteworthy changes in release 7.4 (2009-05-07) [stable]
 
 ** Bug fixes
diff --git a/cfg.mk b/cfg.mk
index aaaf9cbbb..926fb84dc 100644
--- a/cfg.mk
+++ b/cfg.mk
@@ -44,7 +44,7 @@ bootstrap-tools = autoconf,automake,gnulib,bison
 # Now that we have better tests, make this the default.
 export VERBOSE = yes
 
-old_NEWS_hash = 2f661e60191e2c52ba73c22e5ac42b79
+old_NEWS_hash = 8ed224902e335a80ec8340cd0d594d7f
 
 # Ensure that the list of O_ symbols used to compute O_FULLBLOCK is complete.
 dd = $(srcdir)/src/dd.c