diff --git a/CMakeLists.txt b/CMakeLists.txt
index 0deccfa18..2ee482d3f 100644
--- a/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -33,7 +33,7 @@ ENDIF(PREFIX)
 
 SET(VERSION_MAJOR "0")
 SET(VERSION_MINOR "4")
-SET(VERSION_PATCH "0-dev")
+SET(VERSION_PATCH "0-rc1")
 SET(VERSION ${VERSION_MAJOR}.${VERSION_MINOR}.${VERSION_PATCH})
 SET(LICENSE "GPL3")
 SET(PKG_STRING "${PROJECT_NAME} ${VERSION}")
diff --git a/ChangeLog b/ChangeLog
index fb47f5598..c06db1e31 100644
--- a/ChangeLog
+++ b/ChangeLog
@@ -1,7 +1,7 @@
 WeeChat ChangeLog
 =================
 Sébastien Helleu <flashcode@flashtux.org>
-v0.4.0-dev, 2012-12-25
+v0.4.0-rc1, 2012-12-26
 
 
 Version 0.4.0 (under dev!)
diff --git a/NEWS b/NEWS
index 3111938ee..c0b48606a 100644
--- a/NEWS
+++ b/NEWS
@@ -1,7 +1,7 @@
 WeeChat Release Notes
 =====================
 Sébastien Helleu <flashcode@flashtux.org>
-v0.4.0-dev, 2012-12-05
+v0.4.0-rc1, 2012-12-26
 
 
 Version 0.4.0 (under dev!)
diff --git a/configure.in b/configure.in
index f20276fb9..565185401 100644
--- a/configure.in
+++ b/configure.in
@@ -24,7 +24,7 @@
 # Process this file with autoconf to produce a configure script.
 
 AC_PREREQ(2.56)
-AC_INIT(WeeChat, 0.4.0-dev, flashcode@flashtux.org)
+AC_INIT(WeeChat, 0.4.0-rc1, flashcode@flashtux.org)
 AC_CONFIG_SRCDIR([configure.in])
 AM_CONFIG_HEADER(config.h)
 AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE