diff --git a/mk/release.mk b/mk/release.mk
index 34042cd27a..b2312e1cf9 100644
--- a/mk/release.mk
+++ b/mk/release.mk
@@ -1,86 +1,93 @@
 #
 # Copyright 2008-2022 the Pacemaker project contributors
 #
 # The version control history for this file may have further details.
 #
 # This source code is licensed under the GNU General Public License version 2
 # or later (GPLv2+) WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY.
 #
 
 # Define variables related to release version and such
 
 COMMIT	?= HEAD
 
 # TAG defaults to DIST when in a source distribution instead of a git checkout,
 # the tag name if COMMIT is tagged, and the full commit ID otherwise.
 TAG	?= $(shell								\
 	     T=$$(git describe --tags --exact-match '$(COMMIT)' 2>/dev/null);	\
 	     [ -n "$${T}" ] && echo "$${T}" 					\
 	     || git log --pretty=format:%H -n 1 '$(COMMIT)' 2>/dev/null		\
 	     || echo DIST)
 
 # If DIRTY=anything is passed to make, generated versions will end in ".mod"
 # as long as there are uncommitted changes and COMMIT is not changed from the
 # default.
 DIRTY_EXT	= $(shell [ -n "$(DIRTY)" ]				\
 			&& [ "$(COMMIT)" == "HEAD" ] 			\
 			&& ! git diff-index --quiet HEAD -- 2>/dev/null	\
 			&& echo .mod)
 
 # These can be used in case statements to avoid make interpreting parentheses
 lparen = (
 rparen = )
 
 # git tag of highest-versioned release candidate (such as "Pacemaker-2.1.5-rc2")
 # or empty if not in git checkout
 LAST_RC		?= $(shell git tag -l 2>/dev/null				\
 		     | sed -n -e 's/^\(Pacemaker-[0-9.]*-rc[0-9]*\)$$/\1/p'	\
 		     | sort -Vr | head -n 1)
 
 # This will be empty if not in a git checkout
 CHECKOUT	= $(shell git rev-parse --git-dir 2>/dev/null)
 
 # VERSION is set by configure, but we allow some make targets to be run without
 # running configure first, so set a reasonable default in that case.
 VERSION		?= $(shell if [ -z "$(CHECKOUT)" ]; then			\
 			echo 0.0.0;						\
 		     else							\
 			git tag -l						\
 				| sed -n -e 's/^\(Pacemaker-[0-9.]*\)$$/\1/p'	\
 				| sort -Vr | head -n 1;				\
 		     fi)
 
 # What the git tag would be for configured VERSION (such as "Pacemaker-2.1.5")
 LAST_RELEASE	?= Pacemaker-$(VERSION)
 
-# What the git tag would be for configured VERSION with minor-minor version bump
-# (such as "Pacemaker-2.1.6"; this should be manually overriden when bumping
+# What the git tag would be for the release after the configured VERSION
+# (LAST_RELEASE stripped of its -rc* suffix if present, or with minor-minor
+# version bumped if not; this should be manually overriden when bumping
 # the major or minor version)
-NEXT_RELEASE	?= $(shell echo $(LAST_RELEASE) 			\
-		     | awk -F. '/[0-9]+\./{$$3+=1;OFS=".";print $$1,$$2,$$3}')
+NEXT_RELEASE	?= $(shell case "$(LAST_RELEASE)" in				\
+			*-rc*$(rparen)						\
+				echo $(LAST_RELEASE) | sed s:-rc.*:: ;;		\
+			*$(rparen)						\
+				echo $(LAST_RELEASE) | awk -F.			\
+				'/[0-9]+\./{$$3+=1;OFS=".";print $$1,$$2,$$3}'	\
+				;;						\
+		     esac)
 
 # We have two make targets for creating distributions:
 #
 # - "make dist" is automake's native functionality, based on the various
 #   dist/nodist make variables; it always uses the current sources
 #
 # - "make export" is a custom target based on "git archive" and relevant
 #   entries from .gitattributes; it defaults to current sources but can use any
 #   git tag
 #
 # Both targets use the same name for the result, though they generate different
 # contents.
 #
 # The directory is named pacemaker-<version> when in a source distribution
 # instead of a git checkout, pacemaker-<version_part_of_tag> for tagged
 # commits, and pacemaker-<short_commit> otherwise.
 top_distdir	= $(PACKAGE)-$(shell						\
 		  case $(TAG) in						\
 			DIST$(rparen)						\
 				[ -n "$(VERSION)" ] && echo "$(VERSION)"	\
 					|| echo DIST;;				\
 			Pacemaker-*$(rparen)					\
 				echo '$(TAG)' | cut -c11-;;			\
 			*$(rparen)						\
 				git log --pretty=format:%h -n 1 '$(TAG)';;	\
 		  esac)$(DIRTY_EXT)