diff --git a/.prev-version b/.prev-version
index 5904f7ade..f99416236 100644
--- a/.prev-version
+++ b/.prev-version
@@ -1 +1 @@
-7.2
+7.3
diff --git a/NEWS b/NEWS
index 608d7f4e7..e998d37b8 100644
--- a/NEWS
+++ b/NEWS
@@ -1,5 +1,8 @@
 GNU coreutils NEWS                                    -*- outline -*-
 
+* Noteworthy changes in release ?.? (????-??-??) [?]
+
+
 * Noteworthy changes in release 7.3 (2009-05-01) [stable]
 
 ** Bug fixes
diff --git a/cfg.mk b/cfg.mk
index e4f608ed9..aaaf9cbbb 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 = 40279d1aa0a0ef3ca9d1f0a001eb9e2f
+old_NEWS_hash = 2f661e60191e2c52ba73c22e5ac42b79
 
 # Ensure that the list of O_ symbols used to compute O_FULLBLOCK is complete.
 dd = $(srcdir)/src/dd.c