diff --git a/loader/.gitignore b/loader/.gitignore
index e3e92e463fe..677df335e11 100644
--- a/loader/.gitignore
+++ b/loader/.gitignore
@@ -1,3 +1,5 @@
+/version-stamp
+/version.c
 /wine
 /wine-glibc
 /wine-kthread
diff --git a/loader/Makefile.in b/loader/Makefile.in
index 9cb6ba659c7..94c2428c5fe 100644
--- a/loader/Makefile.in
+++ b/loader/Makefile.in
@@ -11,8 +11,8 @@ C_SRCS = \
 	preloader.c \
 	pthread.c
 
-KTHREAD_OBJS = kthread.o main.o
-PTHREAD_OBJS = pthread.o main.o
+KTHREAD_OBJS = kthread.o main.o version.o
+PTHREAD_OBJS = pthread.o main.o version.o
 
 MAIN_BINARY    = @MAIN_BINARY@
 EXTRA_BINARIES = @EXTRA_BINARIES@
@@ -58,6 +58,12 @@ uninstall::
 	$(RM) $(DESTDIR)$(mandir)/man$(prog_manext)/wine.$(prog_manext)
 
 clean::
-	$(RM) $(WINE_BINARIES) $(MODULE)
+	$(RM) $(WINE_BINARIES) $(MODULE) version.c version-stamp
+
+version-stamp: dummy
+	(GIT_DIR=$(TOPSRCDIR)/.git git describe 2>/dev/null || echo "wine-@PACKAGE_VERSION@") | sed -e 's/\(.*\)/const char wine_version[] = "\1";/' >$@ || ($(RM) $@ && exit 1)
+
+version.c: version-stamp
+	@cmp -s version-stamp $@ || cp version-stamp $@
 
 @DEPENDENCIES@  # everything below this line is overwritten by make depend
diff --git a/loader/main.c b/loader/main.c
index dd5d7694dc5..5e0f330caa4 100644
--- a/loader/main.c
+++ b/loader/main.c
@@ -68,7 +68,7 @@ static inline void reserve_area( void *addr, size_t size )
  */
 static void check_command_line( int argc, char *argv[] )
 {
-    static const char version[] = PACKAGE_STRING;
+    extern const char wine_version[];
     static const char usage[] =
         "Usage: wine PROGRAM [ARGUMENTS...]   Run the specified program\n"
         "       wine --help                   Display this help and exit\n"
@@ -86,7 +86,7 @@ static void check_command_line( int argc, char *argv[] )
     }
     if (!strcmp( argv[1], "--version" ))
     {
-        printf( "%s\n", version );
+        printf( "%s\n", wine_version );
         exit(0);
     }
 }