diff --git a/compiler/cpp/Makefile.am b/compiler/cpp/Makefile.am
index d7c7085..2dcdb5e 100644
--- a/compiler/cpp/Makefile.am
+++ b/compiler/cpp/Makefile.am
@@ -1,4 +1,5 @@
 AM_YFLAGS = -d
+BUILT_SOURCES =
 
 bin_PROGRAMS = thrift
 
@@ -80,3 +81,31 @@
 
 clean-local:
 	$(RM) thriftl.cc thrifty.cc thrifty.h
+
+src/main.cc: version.h
+
+# Adding this to BUILT_SOURCES will cause version.h to be
+# regenerated on every "make all" or "make check", which is
+# necessary because it changes whenever we "svn up" or similar.
+# Ideally, we would like this to be regenerated whenever the
+# compiler is rebuilt, but every way we could think of to do
+# that caused unnecessary rebuilds of the compiler.
+BUILT_SOURCES += regen_version_h
+
+THRIFT_VERSION=$(shell /bin/sh $(top_srcdir)/print_version.sh -v)
+THRIFT_REVISION=$(shell /bin/sh $(top_srcdir)/print_version.sh -r)
+
+regen_version_h:
+	@echo -n "Regenerating version.h... "
+	@TMPFILE=`mktemp ./version_h.tmp_XXXXXX` ; \
+		echo "// AUTOGENERATED, DO NOT EDIT" > $$TMPFILE ; \
+		echo '#define THRIFT_VERSION "$(THRIFT_VERSION)"\n' >> $$TMPFILE ; \
+		echo '#define THRIFT_REVISION "$(THRIFT_REVISION)"\n' >> $$TMPFILE ; \
+		if cmp $$TMPFILE version.h >/dev/null ; \
+		then \
+			rm -f $$TMPFILE ; \
+			echo "No changes." ; \
+		else \
+			mv $$TMPFILE version.h ; \
+			echo "Updated." ; \
+		fi