Post release chores

4 files changed, 25 insertions, 3 deletions

diff --git a/ChangeLog b/ChangeLog
index e07ba1f58..4c39dd662 100644
--- a/ChangeLog
+++ b/ChangeLog
@@ -2,8 +2,13 @@
 Pylint's ChangeLog
 ------------------
 
+What's New in Pylint 2.8.1?
+===========================
+Release date: TBA
+
 ..
-  Put new features and bugfixes here and also in 'doc/whatsnew/2.8.rst'
+  Put new features and bugfixes here and also in 'doc/whatsnew/2.9.rst'
+
 
 What's New in Pylint 2.8.0?
 ===========================
diff --git a/doc/whatsnew/2.9.rst b/doc/whatsnew/2.9.rst
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..13dca61c1
--- /dev/null
+++ b/doc/whatsnew/2.9.rst
@@ -0,0 +1,16 @@
+**************************
+ What's New in Pylint 2.9
+**************************
+
+:Release: 2.9
+:Date: TBA
+
+Summary -- Release highlights
+=============================
+
+
+New checkers
+============
+
+Other Changes
+=============
diff --git a/doc/whatsnew/index.rst b/doc/whatsnew/index.rst
index 548962f48..1ba9598a8 100644
--- a/doc/whatsnew/index.rst
+++ b/doc/whatsnew/index.rst
@@ -9,6 +9,7 @@ High level descriptions of the most important changes between major Pylint versi
 .. toctree::
    :maxdepth: 1
 
+   2.9.rst
    2.8.rst
    2.7.rst
    2.6.rst
diff --git a/pylint/__pkginfo__.py b/pylint/__pkginfo__.py
index 16fb00977..43ed5090a 100644
--- a/pylint/__pkginfo__.py
+++ b/pylint/__pkginfo__.py
@@ -3,10 +3,10 @@
 
 from typing import Optional
 
-__version__ = "2.8.0"
+__version__ = "2.8.1"
 # For an official release, use 'alpha_version = False' and 'dev_version = None'
 alpha_version: bool = False  # Release will be an alpha version if True (ex: '1.2.3a6')
-dev_version: Optional[int] = None
+dev_version: Optional[int] = 1
 
 if dev_version is not None:
     if alpha_version: