diff --git a/RELEASE.md b/RELEASE.md
index cd11c8414f32f3343158c96ec9447247b32498f5..294dba8a624311c6ad5932ddb9ba6abab245f6b5 100644
--- a/RELEASE.md
+++ b/RELEASE.md
@@ -8,7 +8,7 @@ Upstream
 * update `configure.ac` and `CHANGELOG.md`
 
         perl -pi -E \
-           "s{^AC_INIT\(\[backupninja\],\[[0-9.rc]+\],}{AC_INIT([backupninja],[$VERSION],}" \
+           "s{^AC_INIT\(\[backupninja\],\[[0-9.\-rc]+\],}{AC_INIT([backupninja],[$VERSION],}" \
            configure.ac
 
         RELEASE_DATE=$(LC_ALL=C date '+%Y-%m-%d'); perl -pi -E \