diff --git a/CHANGES b/CHANGES
index 25441cc160..7cda464825 100644
--- a/CHANGES
+++ b/CHANGES
@@ -1,3 +1,17 @@
+7.1.0-dev.381 | 2024-10-04 19:31:36 +0200
+
+  * GH-3949: Fix flaky `missing-file-initially` test (Evan Typanski, Corelight)
+
+    That test got flaky probably from #3949 on centosstream9 CI. You can
+    replicate that behavior by increasing the sleep time when waiting for
+    the file such that the test will attempt to read the missing file again.
+    Since the one second wait for file is glacially slow for this, speeding
+    it up should mean that the file gets created sooner and so the test
+    won't try to open the file again. But, it's always still technically
+    possible, since the test will wait for 10 seconds and the heartbeat
+    seems to be 1 second. At least if that happens, it's probably a bug or
+    massive slowdown of some kind.
+
 7.1.0-dev.379 | 2024-10-04 13:34:31 +0200
 
   * Add missing newline in `spicyz` usage message (Benjamin Bannier, Corelight)
diff --git a/VERSION b/VERSION
index 5f64643c1f..a70633943f 100644
--- a/VERSION
+++ b/VERSION
@@ -1 +1 @@
-7.1.0-dev.379
+7.1.0-dev.381
diff --git a/testing/scripts/wait-for-file b/testing/scripts/wait-for-file
index d1b1ae7ced..6684c0ce1f 100755
--- a/testing/scripts/wait-for-file
+++ b/testing/scripts/wait-for-file
@@ -7,17 +7,21 @@ if [[ $# -ne 2 ]]; then
     exit 1
 fi
 
+SLEEP_INTERVAL=0.1
+SLEEP_INTERVAL_MS=100
+
 wait_file=$1
 max_wait=$2
-wait_count=0
+# Avoid floating point arithmetic by using milliseconds
+wait_countdown=$((${max_wait}000 / SLEEP_INTERVAL_MS))
 
 while [[ ! -e $wait_file ]]; do
-    let "wait_count += 1"
+    wait_countdown=$((wait_countdown - 1))
 
-    if [[ $wait_count -ge $max_wait ]]; then
+    if [[ $wait_countdown -le 0 ]]; then
         echo >&2 "error: file '$wait_file' does not exist after $max_wait seconds"
         exit 1
     fi
 
-    sleep 1
+    sleep $SLEEP_INTERVAL
 done