diff --git a/Makefile b/Makefile
index b8c149853faaceb53ea2dbc33ab2de03d9b9caaa..b03289b105f31496abc12ae01055f549399d6acd 100644
--- a/Makefile
+++ b/Makefile
@@ -66,6 +66,11 @@ endif
 
 SUBDIRS = $(SUBDIRS_NOLIB) libraries
 
+VERSION :
+	echo $(ProjectVersion) >VERSION
+
+all :: VERSION
+
 # Sanity check that all the core libraries are in the tree, to catch
 # failure to run darcs-all.
 check-packages :
@@ -417,7 +422,7 @@ SRC_DIST_DIRS += mk docs distrib $(filter-out docs distrib,$(SUBDIRS))
 SRC_DIST_FILES += \
 	configure.ac config.guess config.sub configure \
 	aclocal.m4 README ANNOUNCE HACKING LICENSE Makefile install-sh \
-	ghc.spec.in
+	ghc.spec.in VERSION
 
 # -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
 # Source distributions
@@ -506,6 +511,9 @@ DIST_CLEAN_FILES += config.cache config.status mk/config.h mk/stamp-h \
 # don't clean config.mk: it's needed when cleaning stuff later on
 LATE_DIST_CLEAN_FILES += mk/config.mk 
 
+# VERSION is shipped in a source dist
+MAINTAINER_CLEAN_FILES += VERSION
+
 extraclean::
 	$(RM) -rf autom4te.cache
 
diff --git a/aclocal.m4 b/aclocal.m4
index 36c0128b7b2e98ed7e7595dbba9aaeb2b47ba7e1..87149a7dc151547e1ff21e21607a75c04a66083e 100644
--- a/aclocal.m4
+++ b/aclocal.m4
@@ -969,7 +969,24 @@ fi])
 # FP_SETUP_PROJECT_VERSION
 # ---------------------
 AC_DEFUN([FP_SETUP_PROJECT_VERSION],
-[# Some renamings
+[
+if test "$RELEASE" = "NO"; then
+    AC_MSG_CHECKING([for GHC version date])
+    if test -d _darcs; then
+        changequote(, )dnl
+        ver_date=`darcs changes --last=100 --xml | grep 'date=' | sed "s/^.*date='\([0-9][0-9][0-9][0-9][0-9][0-9][0-9][0-9]\).*$/\1/g" | sort -n | tail -1`
+        changequote([, ])dnl
+        PACKAGE_VERSION=${PACKAGE_VERSION}.$ver_date
+        AC_MSG_RESULT($PACKAGE_VERSION)
+    elif test -f VERSION; then
+        PACKAGE_VERSION=`cat VERSION`        
+        AC_MSG_RESULT($PACKAGE_VERSION)
+    else
+        AC_MSG_ERROR([no version found])                
+    fi
+fi
+
+# Some renamings
 AC_SUBST([ProjectName], [$PACKAGE_NAME])
 AC_SUBST([ProjectVersion], [$PACKAGE_VERSION])
 
diff --git a/configure.ac b/configure.ac
index eb64f4e853b4c81b90b793280f270a134ccf4065..a1a9861b8234054ecc6877577ccbd7a3af54457a 100644
--- a/configure.ac
+++ b/configure.ac
@@ -3,9 +3,9 @@ dnl (run "grep '^dnl \*' configure.ac | sed -e 's/dnl / /g; s/\*\*/   +/g;'"
 dnl  (or some such) to see the outline of this file)
 dnl
 #
-# (c) The AQUA Project, Glasgow University, 1994-2004
+# (c) The University of Glasgow 1994-2004
 #
-# Configure script template for the Glasgow functional programming tools
+# Configure script template for GHC
 #
 # Process with 'autoreconf' to get a working configure script.
 #
@@ -15,6 +15,17 @@ dnl
 
 AC_INIT([The Glorious Glasgow Haskell Compilation System], [6.7], [glasgow-haskell-bugs@haskell.org], [ghc])
 
+# Set this to YES for a released version, otherwise NO
+RELEASE=NO
+
+# The primary version (e.g. 6.7, 6.6.1) is set in the AC_INIT line
+# above.  If this is not a released version, then we will append the
+# date to the version number (e.g. 6.7.20070204).  The date is
+# constructed by finding the date of the most recent patch in the
+# darcs repository.  If this is a source distribution (not a darcs
+# checkout), then we ship a file 'VERSION' containing the full version
+# when the source distribution was created.
+
 if test ! -f mk/config.h.in; then
    echo "mk/config.h.in doesn't exist: perhaps you haven't run 'autoreconf'?"
    exit 1