diff --git a/.github/workflows/release-drafter.yml b/.github/workflows/release-drafter.yml
index 4000f8c4..4c09c8a7 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/release-drafter.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/release-drafter.yml
@@ -7,6 +7,6 @@ jobs:
   update_release_draft:
     runs-on: ubuntu-latest
     steps:
-      - uses: release-drafter/release-drafter@v5
+      - uses: release-drafter/release-drafter@v6
         env:
           GITHUB_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}
diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index a956a58a..8877b7ef 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -14,4 +14,6 @@ For publishing [the site](https://codehaus-plexus.github.io/plexus-utils/) do th
 mvn -Preporting verify site site:stage scm-publish:publish-scm
 ```
 
-Starting with version 4, XML classes (in `org.codehaus.plexus.util.xml` and `org.codehaus.plexus.util.xml.pull`) have been extracted to a separate [`plexus-xml`](https://github.com/codehaus-plexus/plexus-xml/) 4: if you need them, just use this new artifact.
+Starting with version 4, XML classes (in `org.codehaus.plexus.util.xml` and `org.codehaus.plexus.util.xml.pull`) have been extracted to a separate [`plexus-xml`](https://github.com/codehaus-plexus/plexus-xml/) library: if you need them, just use this new artifact.
+
+`plexus-utils` 4 keeps an optional dependency on `plexus-xml` 3 to keep compatibility with the few XML-oriented methods of `ReaderFactory` and `WriterFactory`: these classes are deprecated, you should migrate as explained in javadoc. And keep `plexus-xml` to 3 if you want Maven 3 compatibility, as `plexus-xml` 4 works only in Maven 4.
diff --git a/pom.xml b/pom.xml
index 2e45695f..c8904ebb 100644
--- a/pom.xml
+++ b/pom.xml
@@ -20,25 +20,26 @@ limitations under the License.
   <parent>
     <groupId>org.codehaus.plexus</groupId>
     <artifactId>plexus</artifactId>
-    <version>13</version>
+    <version>17</version>
   </parent>
 
   <artifactId>plexus-utils</artifactId>
-  <version>4.0.0</version>
+  <version>4.0.1</version>
 
   <name>Plexus Common Utilities</name>
   <description>A collection of various utility classes to ease working with strings, files, command lines and
     more.</description>
+  <url>https://codehaus-plexus.github.io/plexus-utils/</url>
 
   <scm>
     <connection>scm:git:https://github.com/codehaus-plexus/plexus-utils.git</connection>
     <developerConnection>${project.scm.connection}</developerConnection>
-    <tag>plexus-utils-4.0.0</tag>
-    <url>https://github.com/codehaus-plexus/plexus-utils/tree/master/</url>
+    <tag>plexus-utils-4.0.1</tag>
+    <url>https://github.com/codehaus-plexus/plexus-utils/tree/${project.scm.tag}/</url>
   </scm>
   <issueManagement>
     <system>github</system>
-    <url>http://github.com/codehaus-plexus/plexus-utils/issues</url>
+    <url>https://github.com/codehaus-plexus/plexus-utils/issues</url>
   </issueManagement>
   <distributionManagement>
     <site>
@@ -48,63 +49,26 @@ limitations under the License.
   </distributionManagement>
 
   <properties>
-    <project.build.outputTimestamp>2023-05-22T15:13:56Z</project.build.outputTimestamp>
+    <project.build.outputTimestamp>2024-04-13T09:06:44Z</project.build.outputTimestamp>
   </properties>
 
   <dependencies>
     <dependency>
       <groupId>org.codehaus.plexus</groupId>
       <artifactId>plexus-xml</artifactId>
-      <version>4.0.0</version>
+      <version>3.0.0</version>
+      <!-- this dependency is optional, only necessary for deprecated Reader/WriterFactory.newXmlReader/Writer(...) -->
       <optional>true</optional>
     </dependency>
     <dependency>
       <groupId>org.junit.jupiter</groupId>
-      <artifactId>junit-jupiter</artifactId>
-      <version>5.9.2</version>
+      <artifactId>junit-jupiter-api</artifactId>
       <scope>test</scope>
     </dependency>
   </dependencies>
 
-  <repositories>
-    <repository>
-      <releases>
-        <enabled>false</enabled>
-      </releases>
-      <snapshots>
-        <enabled>true</enabled>
-      </snapshots>
-      <id>oss.snapshots</id>
-      <url>https://oss.sonatype.org/content/repositories/plexus-snapshots/</url>
-    </repository>
-  </repositories>
-
   <build>
-    <pluginManagement>
-      <plugins>
-        <plugin>
-          <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
-          <artifactId>maven-resources-plugin</artifactId>
-          <version>3.3.1</version>
-        </plugin>
-      </plugins>
-    </pluginManagement>
     <plugins>
-      <plugin>
-        <artifactId>maven-compiler-plugin</artifactId>
-        <executions>
-          <execution>
-            <id>default-compile</id>
-            <goals>
-              <goal>compile</goal>
-            </goals>
-            <configuration>
-              <source>1.8</source>
-              <target>1.8</target>
-            </configuration>
-          </execution>
-        </executions>
-      </plugin>
       <plugin>
         <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
         <artifactId>maven-scm-publish-plugin</artifactId>
diff --git a/src/main/java/org/codehaus/plexus/util/AbstractScanner.java b/src/main/java/org/codehaus/plexus/util/AbstractScanner.java
index a10f43c7..d650c6df 100644
--- a/src/main/java/org/codehaus/plexus/util/AbstractScanner.java
+++ b/src/main/java/org/codehaus/plexus/util/AbstractScanner.java
@@ -41,7 +41,7 @@ public abstract class AbstractScanner implements Scanner {
      * <li>Mac: &#42;&#42;/.DS_Store</li>
      * <li>Serena Dimension: &#42;&#42;/.metadata, &#42;&#42;/.metadata/&#42;&#42;</li>
      * <li>Mercurial: &#42;&#42;/.hg, &#42;&#42;/.hg/&#42;&#42;</li>
-     * <li>Git: &#42;&#42;/.git, &#42;&#42;/.git/&#42;&#42;</li>
+     * <li>Git: &#42;&#42;/.git, &#42;&#42;/.git/&#42;&#42;, &#42;&#42;/.gitignore</li>
      * <li>Bitkeeper: &#42;&#42;/BitKeeper, &#42;&#42;/BitKeeper/&#42;&#42;, &#42;&#42;/ChangeSet,
      * &#42;&#42;/ChangeSet/&#42;&#42;</li>
      * <li>Darcs: &#42;&#42;/_darcs, &#42;&#42;/_darcs/&#42;&#42;, &#42;&#42;/.darcsrepo,
@@ -106,6 +106,7 @@ public abstract class AbstractScanner implements Scanner {
         // git
         "**/.git",
         "**/.git/**",
+        "**/.gitignore",
 
         // BitKeeper
         "**/BitKeeper",
diff --git a/src/site/markdown/index.md b/src/site/markdown/index.md
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..d8eff619
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/site/markdown/index.md
@@ -0,0 +1,7 @@
+## Plexus Common Utilities
+
+A collection of various utility classes to ease working with strings, files, command lines and more.
+
+Starting with version 4, XML classes (in `org.codehaus.plexus.util.xml` and `org.codehaus.plexus.util.xml.pull`) have been extracted to a separate [`plexus-xml`](../plexus-xml/) library: if you need them, just use this new artifact.
+
+`plexus-utils` 4 keeps an optional dependency on `plexus-xml` 3 to keep compatibility with the few XML-oriented methods of [`ReaderFactory`](./apidocs/org/codehaus/plexus/util/ReaderFactory.html) and [`WriterFactory`](./apidocs/org/codehaus/plexus/util/WriterFactory.html): these classes are deprecated, you should migrate as explained in javadoc. And keep `plexus-xml` to 3 if you want Maven 3 compatibility, as `plexus-xml` 4 works only in Maven 4..
diff --git a/src/site/site.xml b/src/site/site.xml
index 38cbad8a..0d5a3d79 100644
--- a/src/site/site.xml
+++ b/src/site/site.xml
@@ -4,6 +4,14 @@
   xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
   xsi:schemaLocation="http://maven.apache.org/DECORATION/1.0.0%20http://maven.apache.org/xsd/decoration-1.0.0.xsd">
   <body>
+    <links>
+      <item name="Plexus XML" href="https://github.com/plexus-xml/" />
+    </links>
+    <breadcrumbs>
+      <item name="Plexus" href="https://codehaus-plexus.github.io/"/>
+      <item name="Plexus Utils" href="https://codehaus-plexus.github.io/plexus-utils/"/>
+    </breadcrumbs>
+    
     <menu name="Overview">
       <item name="Introduction" href="https://github.com/index.html"/>
       <item name="JavaDocs" href="https://github.com/apidocs/index.html"/>