diff --git a/.rat-excludes b/.rat-excludes
index 64b9932249..bdc45e6652 100644
--- a/.rat-excludes
+++ b/.rat-excludes
@@ -10,3 +10,4 @@ CHANGES.txt
 interface/*/gen-*/**
 src/gen-java/**
 build/**
+lib/licenses/*.txt
diff --git a/CHANGES.txt b/CHANGES.txt
index 58bcd99c5e..076047e825 100644
--- a/CHANGES.txt
+++ b/CHANGES.txt
@@ -6,6 +6,10 @@ dev
  * access levels for authentication/authorization (CASSANDRA-900)
 
 
+0.6.1
+ * fix NPE in sstable2json when no excluded keys are given (CASSANDRA-934)
+
+
 0.6.0-RC1
  * JMX drain to flush memtables and run through commit log (CASSANDRA-880)
  * Bootstrapping can skip ranges under the right conditions (CASSANDRA-902)
diff --git a/build.xml b/build.xml
index 2155d32279..ccb5cb586f 100644
--- a/build.xml
+++ b/build.xml
@@ -42,7 +42,7 @@
     <property name="test.name" value="*Test"/>
     <property name="test.unit.src" value="${test.dir}/unit"/>
     <property name="dist.dir" value="${build.dir}/dist"/>
-    <property name="version" value="0.6.0-beta3"/>
+    <property name="version" value="0.6.0-rc1"/>
     <property name="final.name" value="${ant.project.name}-${version}"/>
     <property name="ivy.version" value="2.1.0" />
     <property name="ivy.url"
diff --git a/debian/changelog b/debian/changelog
index 94571facd6..f0b54409d2 100644
--- a/debian/changelog
+++ b/debian/changelog
@@ -1,3 +1,9 @@
+cassandra (0.6.0~rc1-1) unstable; urgency=low
+
+  * New release candidated.
+
+ -- Eric Evans <eevans@apache.org>  Sun, 28 Mar 2010 09:42:07 -0500
+
 cassandra (0.6.0~beta3-1) unstable; urgency=low
 
   * New beta release.
diff --git a/src/java/org/apache/cassandra/tools/SSTableExport.java b/src/java/org/apache/cassandra/tools/SSTableExport.java
index 0cf984a130..0088f1e66f 100644
--- a/src/java/org/apache/cassandra/tools/SSTableExport.java
+++ b/src/java/org/apache/cassandra/tools/SSTableExport.java
@@ -192,8 +192,11 @@ public class SSTableExport
         SSTableReader reader = SSTableReader.open(ssTableFile);
         SSTableScanner scanner = reader.getScanner(INPUT_FILE_BUFFER_SIZE);
         IPartitioner<?> partitioner = DatabaseDescriptor.getPartitioner();    
-        Set<String> excludeSet = new HashSet<String>(Arrays.asList(excludes));
+        Set<String> excludeSet = new HashSet();
         int i = 0;
+
+        if (excludes != null)
+            excludeSet = new HashSet<String>(Arrays.asList(excludes));
         
         outs.println("{");
         
@@ -252,7 +255,10 @@ public class SSTableExport
     static void export(SSTableReader reader, PrintStream outs, String[] excludes) throws IOException
     {
         SSTableScanner scanner = reader.getScanner(INPUT_FILE_BUFFER_SIZE);
-        Set<String> excludeSet = new HashSet<String>(Arrays.asList(excludes));
+        Set<String> excludeSet = new HashSet();
+
+        if (excludes != null)
+            excludeSet = new HashSet<String>(Arrays.asList(excludes));
 
         outs.println("{");