diff --git a/Documentation/RelNotes/2.16.0.txt b/Documentation/RelNotes/2.16.0.txt
index 8f0461e..c648c12 100644
--- a/Documentation/RelNotes/2.16.0.txt
+++ b/Documentation/RelNotes/2.16.0.txt
@@ -433,6 +433,14 @@
    from strings read from various "state" files.
    (merge 041fe8fc83 ra/prompt-eread-fix later to maint).
 
+ * "git merge -s recursive" did not correctly abort when the index is
+   dirty, if the merged tree happened to be the same as the current
+   HEAD, which has been fixed.
+
+ * Bytes with high-bit set were encoded incorrectly and made
+   credential helper fail.
+   (merge 4c267f2ae3 jd/fix-strbuf-add-urlencode-bytes later to maint).
+
  * Other minor doc, test and build updates and code cleanups.
    (merge 1a1fc2d5b5 rd/man-prune-progress later to maint).
    (merge 0ba014035a rd/man-reflog-add-n later to maint).
@@ -456,3 +464,6 @@
    (merge c07b3adff1 bw/path-doc later to maint).
    (merge bf9d7df950 tz/lib-git-svn-svnserve-tests later to maint).
    (merge dec366c9a8 sr/http-sslverify-config-doc later to maint).
+   (merge 3f824e91c8 jk/test-suite-tracing later to maint).
+   (merge 1feb061701 db/doc-config-section-names-with-bs later to maint).
+   (merge 74dea0e13c jh/memihash-opt later to maint).
diff --git a/GIT-VERSION-GEN b/GIT-VERSION-GEN
index 4eba770..e55ac4c 100755
--- a/GIT-VERSION-GEN
+++ b/GIT-VERSION-GEN
@@ -1,7 +1,7 @@
 #!/bin/sh
 
 GVF=GIT-VERSION-FILE
-DEF_VER=v2.16.0-rc0
+DEF_VER=v2.16.0-rc1
 
 LF='
 '