The second release candidate for WordPress 3.1 is now available. The requisite haiku:

Rounding up stragglers
Last Few bugs for 3.1
Go test RC2

As I Outlined in the announcement post for RC1 , release candidates are the last stop before the final release. It means-we think we’re done, and again we have no bugs to squash. But with tens of millions of users, many server configurations and setups, and Thousands of plugins and themes, it’s still possible we’ve missed something.

Beta 1 Came On Thanksgiving, Christmas on RC1, and RC2 on New Year’s Day We will not be waiting for Another holiday for the final release, though, if you know WordPress 3.1 Have not tested yet, now is the time!

Select changes since RC1:

  • The security fixes included in WordPress 3.0.4
  • Fix issues related to handling a static front page
  • Fixes and enhancements for the pagination buttons
  • Fix searching for partial usernames
  • Reactivate plugins after editing Them Properly
  • Always show the current author in the author dropdown When editing a post
  • Fixes for attachment taxonomies
  • Fix node removal for the admin bar
  • Fix the custom post show_in_menu type argument
  • Various fixes for right-to-left languages
  • and A Few dozen more changes

If you are testing the release candidate and think you’ve found a bug, There Are A Few Ways to let us know:

To test WordPress 3.1, try the Beta Tester WordPress plugin (you’ll want "bleeding edge nightlies). Or you can download the release candidate here (zip).

If Any Known issues crop up, You’ll Be Able to Find Them here . If you’d like to know Which levers to pull in your testing, check out a list of features in Our post Beta 1.

Download WordPress 3.1 RC 2