Note that you can see if there have been commits since a release (the last git tag) by using the command 'git describe'.
$ git checkout -b temp v2.6.23
Switched to a new branch "temp"
$ git describe
v2.6.23
$ git checkout master
$ git describe
v2.6.23-4223-g65a6ec0
Format is: last tag - # commits since last tag - id of HEAD commit
Hope this helps,
Frans Pop
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