diff --git a/print_version.sh b/print_version.sh
new file mode 100755
index 0000000..92d1a2d
--- /dev/null
+++ b/print_version.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,28 @@
+#!/bin/sh
+
+cd "`dirname "$0"`"
+
+# Computing both the version and the revision on every invocation is wasteful,
+# but it is cheap and avoids the use of nonportable shell functions.
+
+VERSION=`sed -ne 's/^AC_INIT(\[thrift\], \[\(.*\)\])$/\1/p' configure.ac`
+
+if test -d .svn ; then
+  REVISION="r`svnversion`"
+elif test -d .git ; then
+  SHA1=`git rev-list --max-count=1 --grep='^git-svn-id:' HEAD`
+  REVISION=`git cat-file commit $SHA1 | sed -ne 's/^git-svn-id:[^@]*@\([0-9][0-9]*\).*/r\1/p'`
+  OFFSET=`git rev-list ^$SHA1 HEAD | wc -l`
+  if test $OFFSET != 0 ; then
+    REVISION="$REVISION-$OFFSET-`git rev-parse --verify HEAD | cut -c 1-7`"
+  fi
+else
+  REVISION="exported"
+fi
+
+case "$1" in
+  -v) echo $VERSION ;;
+  -r) echo $REVISION ;;
+  -a) echo "$VERSION-$REVISION" ;;
+  *) echo "Usage: $0 -v|-r|-a"; exit 1;;
+esac