--- a/ChangeLog
+++ b/ChangeLog
@@ -1,3 +1,16 @@
+2011-10-23  Gary V. Vaughan  <gary@gnu.org>
+	    Bruno Haible  <bruno@clisp.org>
+	    Jim Meyering  <jim@meyering.net>
+
+	readme-release: improve safety of release prep instructions.
+	* README-release: Don't git pull all branches when only master
+	is needed for the release process.
+	Run make maintainer-clean before changing trees and merging.
+	Don't try to run ./configure right after git pull in case files
+	that influence the bootstrap process have changed, move the
+	./configure step to after running ./bootstrap.
+	Don't bootstrap "one last time"... it's the first time!
+
 2011-10-22  Bruno Haible  <bruno@clisp.org>
 
 	errno, strerror-override: Support for MSVC 10.

--- a/top/README-release
+++ b/top/README-release
@@ -2,9 +2,9 @@
 
 * start from a clean, up-to-date git directory.
 
-    git checkout master; git pull
-
-* Run ./configure && make maintainer-clean
+    make -k maintainer-clean || { ./configure && make maintainer-clean; }
+    git checkout master
+    git pull origin master
 
 * Ensure that the desired versions of autoconf, automake, etc.
   are in your PATH.  See the buildreq list in bootstrap.conf for
@@ -16,14 +16,12 @@
 * Ensure that you've pushed all changes that belong in the release
   and that the NixOS/Hydra autobuilder is reporting all is well:
 
-      http://hydra.nixos.org/jobset/gnu/@PACKAGE@-master
+    http://hydra.nixos.org/jobset/gnu/@PACKAGE@-master
 
-* Run bootstrap one last time.  This downloads any new translations:
-
-    ./bootstrap
+* Run "./bootstrap && ./configure".  This downloads any new translations:
 
 * Pre-release testing:
-  Ensure that make check syntax-check succeeds.
+  Ensure that "make check syntax-check" succeeds.
 
 * Run "make distcheck"