diff --git a/Documentation/RelNotes/1.7.8.txt b/Documentation/RelNotes/1.7.8.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..3c247cc231
--- /dev/null
+++ b/Documentation/RelNotes/1.7.8.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,107 @@
+Git v1.7.8 Release Notes (draft)
+================================
+
+Updates since v1.7.7
+--------------------
+
+ * The build procedure has been taught to take advantage of computed
+   dependency automatically when the complier supports it.
+
+ * The date parser now accepts timezone designators that lack minutes
+   part and also has a colon between "hh:mm".
+
+ * "git am" learned how to read from patches generated by Hg.
+
+ * "git branch" learned an explicit --list option to ask for branches
+   listed, optionally with a glob matching pattern to limit its output.
+
+ * "git check-attr" learned "--cached" option to look at .gitattributes
+   files from the index, not from the working tree.
+
+ * Variants of "git cherry-pick" and "git revert" that take multiple
+   commits learned to "--continue".
+
+ * "git fetch" learned to honor transfer.fsckobjects configuration to
+   validate the objects that were received from the other end, just like
+   "git receive-pack" (the receiving end of "git push") does.
+
+ * "git fetch" makes sure that the set of objects it received from the
+   other end actually completes the history before updating the refs.
+   "git receive-pack" (the receiving end of "git push") learned to do the
+   same.
+
+ * "git for-each-ref" learned "%(contents:subject)", "%(contents:body)"
+   and "%(contents:signature)". The last one is useful for signed tags.
+
+ * "git ls-remote" learned to respond to "-h"(elp) requests.
+
+ * "git send-email" learned to respond to "-h"(elp) requests.
+
+ * "git stash" learned "--include-untracked" option to stash away
+   untracked/ignored cruft from the working tree.
+
+ * "mediawiki" remote helper can interact with (surprise!) MediaWiki
+   with "git fetch" & "git push".
+
+ * "gitweb" leaked unescaped control characters from syntax hiliter
+   outputs.
+
+
+Fixes since v1.7.7
+------------------
+
+Unless otherwise noted, all fixes in the 1.7.7.X maintenance track are
+included in this release.
+
+ * "git diff $tree $path" used to apply the pathspec at the output stage,
+   reading the whole tree, wasting resources.
+   (merge 2f88c1970 jc/diff-index-unpack later to maint).
+
+ * The code to check for updated submodules during a "git fetch" of the
+   superproject had an unnecessary quadratic loop.
+   (merge 6859de45 jk/maint-fetch-submodule-check-fix later to maint).
+
+ * "git fetch" from a large bundle did not enable the progress output.
+   (merge be042aff jc/maint-bundle-too-quiet later to maint).
+
+ * When "git fsck --lost-and-found" found that an empty blob object in the
+   object store is unreachable, it incorrectly reported an error after
+   writing the lost blob out successfully.
+   (merge eb726f2d jc/maint-fsck-fwrite-size-check later to maint).
+
+ * "git filter-branch" did not refresh the index before checking that the
+   working tree was clean.
+   (merge 5347a50f jk/filter-branch-require-clean-work-tree later to maint).
+
+ * "git grep $tree" when run with multiple threads had an unsafe access to
+   the object database that should have been protected with mutex.
+   (merge 8cb5775b2 nm/grep-object-sha1-lock later to maint).
+
+ * The "--ancestry-path" option to "git log" and friends misbehaved in a
+   history with complex criss-cross merges and showed an uninteresting
+   side history as well.
+   (merge c05b988a6 bk/ancestry-path later to maint).
+
+ * "git merge" did not understand ":/<pattern>" as a way to name a commit.
+
+ * Tests with --valgrind failed to find "mergetool" scriptlets.
+   (merge ee0d7bf92 tr/mergetool-valgrind later to maint).
+
+ * "git patch-id" miscomputed the patch-id in a patch that has a line longer
+   than 1kB.
+   (merge b9ab810b ms/patch-id-with-overlong-line later to maint).
+
+ * When an "exec" insn failed after modifying the index and/or the working
+   tree during "rebase -i", we now check and warn that the changes need to
+   be cleaned up.
+   (merge 1686519a mm/rebase-i-exec-edit later to maint).
+
+---
+it=master
+exec >/var/tmp/1
+O=v1.7.7
+O=v1.7.7-137-g2e49dab
+echo O=$(git describe --always $it)
+git log --first-parent --oneline --reverse ^$O $it
+echo
+git shortlog --no-merges ^$O $it
diff --git a/GIT-VERSION-GEN b/GIT-VERSION-GEN
index f1dc5faead..19a142adc2 100755
--- a/GIT-VERSION-GEN
+++ b/GIT-VERSION-GEN
@@ -1,7 +1,7 @@
 #!/bin/sh
 
 GVF=GIT-VERSION-FILE
-DEF_VER=v1.7.7
+DEF_VER=v1.7.7.GIT
 
 LF='
 '
diff --git a/RelNotes b/RelNotes
index 6372427426..7d9276973a 120000
--- a/RelNotes
+++ b/RelNotes
@@ -1 +1 @@
-Documentation/RelNotes/1.7.7.txt
\ No newline at end of file
+Documentation/RelNotes/1.7.8.txt
\ No newline at end of file