diff --git a/NEWS b/NEWS
index 0a01bf054..896510b22 100644
--- a/NEWS
+++ b/NEWS
@@ -1,5 +1,7 @@
 GNU coreutils NEWS                                    -*- outline -*-
 
+* Major changes in release 5.91 (2005-??-??) [stable]
+
 * Major changes in release 5.90 (2005-09-29) [unstable]
 
 ** Bring back support for `head -NUM', `tail -NUM', etc. even when
diff --git a/configure.ac b/configure.ac
index a683f81d2..08c5eca3d 100644
--- a/configure.ac
+++ b/configure.ac
@@ -19,7 +19,7 @@ dnl Inc., 51 Franklin Street, Fifth Floor, Boston, MA 02110-1301, USA.
 
 dnl Written by Jim Meyering.
 
-AC_INIT([GNU coreutils],[5.90],[bug-coreutils@gnu.org])
+AC_INIT([GNU coreutils],[5.91-cvs],[bug-coreutils@gnu.org])
 AC_CONFIG_SRCDIR(src/ls.c)
 
 AC_CONFIG_AUX_DIR(build-aux)