Start preparing for release 1.5rc1

Signed-off-by: Frediano Ziglio <freddy77@gmail.com>

Author: freddy77

README.md

@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-README for FreeTDS 1.6.dev (development)
+README for FreeTDS 1.5
 ====
 
 *Release date TBD*

configure.ac

@@ -11,7 +11,7 @@ dnl ------------------------------------------------------------
 # ------------------------------------------------------------
 # Initialization
 # ------------------------------------------------------------
-AC_INIT(FreeTDS, 1.6.dev.esyscmd(printf $(date +"%Y%m%d")))
+AC_INIT(FreeTDS, 1.5rc1)
 AC_CONFIG_SRCDIR(src/dblib/dblib.c)
 AC_PREREQ(2.53)
 

doc/htdoc/index.html

@@ -56,6 +56,7 @@
 		<li><a
 	href="ftp://ftp.freetds.org/pub/freetds/stable/freetds-patched.tar.gz">Stable Release</a></li>
 		<li><a href="ftp://ftp.freetds.org/pub/freetds/current/freetds-current.tar.bz2">Nightly Snapshot</a></li>
+		<li><a href="ftp://ftp.freetds.org/pub/freetds/stable/release_candidates/freetds-1.5rc1.tar.bz2">1.5 Release Candidate 1</a></li>
 	</ul>
 
 <b>Documentation</b>

doc/htdoc/news.html

@@ -34,6 +34,18 @@
 </p>
 <table summary="layout" width="80%" align="center">
 
+<!--  item  -->
+<tr bgcolor="#c9c9ff"><td>Version 1.5 Release Candidate 1</td></tr>
+<tr>
+<td>
+
+<p>The first release candidate for version 1.5 is <a href="https://www.freetds.org/files/stable/release_candidates/?C=M;O=D">available</a> for testing.
+Release changes at <a href="https://github.com/FreeTDS/freetds/blob/Branch-1_5/NEWS.md">NEWS</a>. 6 Mar 2025.</p>
+<br />
+
+</td>
+</tr>
+
 <!--  item  -->
 <tr bgcolor="#c9c9ff"><td>Version 1.4 Released</td></tr>
 <tr>