diff --git a/Documentation/RelNotes/2.8.0.txt b/Documentation/RelNotes/2.8.0.txt
index 290774e61a398cf335763cb55814421c95595e0f..b7a6d6826d1a99f0027f8ebec67028ca98145577 100644
--- a/Documentation/RelNotes/2.8.0.txt
+++ b/Documentation/RelNotes/2.8.0.txt
@@ -233,6 +233,13 @@ Performance, Internal Implementation, Development Support etc.
  * There is a new DEVELOPER knob that enables many compiler warning
    options in the Makefile.
 
+ * The way the test scripts configure the Apache web server has been
+   updated to work also for Apache 2.4 running on RedHat derived
+   distros.
+
+ * Out of maintenance gcc on OSX 10.6 fails to compile the code in
+   'master'; work it around by using clang by default on the platform.
+
 
 Also contains various documentation updates and code clean-ups.
 
@@ -410,6 +417,11 @@ notes for details).
    but didn't say the reason correctly.
    (merge 638fa62 js/config-set-in-non-repository later to maint).
 
+ * The code to read the pack data using the offsets stored in the pack
+   idx file has been made more carefully check the validity of the
+   data in the idx.
+   (merge 7465feb jk/pack-idx-corruption-safety later to maint).
+
  * Other minor clean-ups and documentation updates
    (merge f459823 ak/extract-argv0-last-dir-sep later to maint).
    (merge 63ca1c0 ak/git-strip-extension-from-dashed-command later to maint).
diff --git a/GIT-VERSION-GEN b/GIT-VERSION-GEN
index b872b6e7d6e5067b7f080217a66f0b9d45c4931b..61c424056a744dd5e0aaf2049e0eacd982bfc345 100755
--- a/GIT-VERSION-GEN
+++ b/GIT-VERSION-GEN
@@ -1,7 +1,7 @@
 #!/bin/sh
 
 GVF=GIT-VERSION-FILE
-DEF_VER=v2.8.0-rc0
+DEF_VER=v2.8.0-rc1
 
 LF='
 '
diff --git a/t/t9700/test.pl b/t/t9700/test.pl
index 7e8c40b97b4eecc2347ab2986a97b62148fe5f88..1b75c919651a8126e2a327f3d9645d4377823726 100755
--- a/t/t9700/test.pl
+++ b/t/t9700/test.pl
@@ -17,6 +17,12 @@ BEGIN {
 use Cwd;
 use File::Basename;
 
+sub adjust_dirsep {
+	my $path = shift;
+	$path =~ s{\\}{/}g;
+	return $path;
+}
+
 BEGIN { use_ok('Git') }
 
 # set up
@@ -33,7 +39,7 @@ is($r->config_int("test.int"), 2048, "config_int: integer");
 is($r->config_int("test.nonexistent"), undef, "config_int: nonexistent");
 ok($r->config_bool("test.booltrue"), "config_bool: true");
 ok(!$r->config_bool("test.boolfalse"), "config_bool: false");
-is($r->config_path("test.path") =~ s/\\/\//gr, $r->config("test.pathexpanded"),
+is(adjust_dirsep($r->config_path("test.path")), $r->config("test.pathexpanded"),
    "config_path: ~/foo expansion");
 is_deeply([$r->config_path("test.pathmulti")], ["foo", "bar"],
    "config_path: multiple values");