diff --git a/Include/patchlevel.h b/Include/patchlevel.h
index ff767a95f72..26c646dcb84 100644
--- a/Include/patchlevel.h
+++ b/Include/patchlevel.h
@@ -24,10 +24,10 @@
 #define PY_MINOR_VERSION	6
 #define PY_MICRO_VERSION	0
 #define PY_RELEASE_LEVEL	PY_RELEASE_LEVEL_GAMMA
-#define PY_RELEASE_SERIAL	1
+#define PY_RELEASE_SERIAL	2
 
 /* Version as a string */
-#define PY_VERSION      	"2.6rc1+"
+#define PY_VERSION      	"2.6rc2"
 /*--end constants--*/
 
 /* Subversion Revision number of this file (not of the repository) */
diff --git a/Lib/distutils/__init__.py b/Lib/distutils/__init__.py
index b622f7d217f..fb8043c370a 100644
--- a/Lib/distutils/__init__.py
+++ b/Lib/distutils/__init__.py
@@ -22,5 +22,5 @@ __revision__ = "$Id$"
 #
 
 #--start constants--
-__version__ = "2.6rc1"
+__version__ = "2.6rc2"
 #--end constants--
diff --git a/Lib/idlelib/idlever.py b/Lib/idlelib/idlever.py
index 59c5568620a..0d7ab6bb199 100644
--- a/Lib/idlelib/idlever.py
+++ b/Lib/idlelib/idlever.py
@@ -1 +1 @@
-IDLE_VERSION = "2.6rc1"
+IDLE_VERSION = "2.6rc2"
diff --git a/Misc/NEWS b/Misc/NEWS
index dbcaf62ebbd..b0bbb699eee 100644
--- a/Misc/NEWS
+++ b/Misc/NEWS
@@ -7,7 +7,7 @@ Python News
 What's New in Python 2.6 release candidate 2?
 =============================================
 
-*Release date: XX-XXXX-2008*
+*Release date: 17-Sep-2008*
 
 Core and Builtins
 -----------------
diff --git a/Misc/RPM/python-2.6.spec b/Misc/RPM/python-2.6.spec
index cd17d4474e6..dda5b60d9db 100644
--- a/Misc/RPM/python-2.6.spec
+++ b/Misc/RPM/python-2.6.spec
@@ -34,7 +34,7 @@
 
 %define name python
 #--start constants--
-%define version 2.6rc1
+%define version 2.6rc2
 %define libver 2.6
 #--end constants--
 %define release 1pydotorg
diff --git a/README b/README
index 8a6fa539dc3..8f0024a3ca7 100644
--- a/README
+++ b/README
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-This is Python version 2.6 release candidate 1
+This is Python version 2.6 release candidate 2
 ==============================================
 
 Copyright (c) 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008