diff --git a/Doc/Makefile b/Doc/Makefile
index 1b54f0b062b..e4bf4382094 100644
--- a/Doc/Makefile
+++ b/Doc/Makefile
@@ -66,7 +66,7 @@ TOOLSDIR=	tools
 
 # This is the *documentation* release, and is used to construct the file
 # names of the downloadable tarballs.
-RELEASE=2.3
+RELEASE=2.4a0
 
 PYTHON=	   python
 DVIPS=	   dvips -N0 -t $(PAPER)
diff --git a/Doc/texinputs/boilerplate.tex b/Doc/texinputs/boilerplate.tex
index 7a61be63932..434feaa07bf 100644
--- a/Doc/texinputs/boilerplate.tex
+++ b/Doc/texinputs/boilerplate.tex
@@ -6,6 +6,6 @@
 }
 
 \date{\today}			% XXX update before final release!
-\release{2.3+}			% software release, not documentation
-\setreleaseinfo{}		% empty for final release
-\setshortversion{2.3}		% major.minor only for software
+\release{2.4}			% software release, not documentation
+\setreleaseinfo{a0}		% empty for final release
+\setshortversion{2.4}		% major.minor only for software