diff --git a/Makefile.am b/Makefile.am
index 0fb81386..cbe147be 100644
--- a/Makefile.am
+++ b/Makefile.am
@@ -1,12 +1,16 @@
 ACLOCAL_AMFLAGS = -I .
 
 # create default-config.h
-BUILT_SOURCES = default-config.h default-theme.h
+BUILT_SOURCES = default-config.h default-theme.h irssi-version.h
+
+.PHONY: irssi-version.h
 
 default-config.h: $(srcdir)/irssi.conf
 	$(srcdir)/file2header.sh $(srcdir)/irssi.conf default_config > default-config.h
 default-theme.h: $(srcdir)/default.theme
 	$(srcdir)/file2header.sh $(srcdir)/default.theme default_theme > default-theme.h
+irssi-version.h:
+	$(srcdir)/irssi-version.sh $(srcdir) > $@
 
 SUBDIRS = src docs scripts
 
@@ -18,8 +22,6 @@ theme_DATA = default.theme colorless.theme
 
 pkginclude_HEADERS = irssi-config.h irssi-version.h
 
-noinst_HEADERS = irssi-version.h.in
-
 EXTRA_DIST = \
 	ChangeLog \
 	autogen.sh \
@@ -30,4 +32,5 @@ EXTRA_DIST = \
 	$(theme_DATA) \
 	irssi-config.in \
 	irssi-icon.png \
+	irssi-version.sh \
 	syntax.pl
diff --git a/autogen.sh b/autogen.sh
index 1795a96a..4d98cf9e 100755
--- a/autogen.sh
+++ b/autogen.sh
@@ -27,7 +27,6 @@ echo "Creating help files..."
 perl syntax.pl
 
 $srcdir/update-changelog.sh $srcdir
-test -f $srcdir/ChangeLog || exit 1
 
 files=`echo docs/help/in/*.in|sed -e 's,docs/help/in/Makefile.in ,,' -e 's,docs/help/in/,!,g' -e 's/\.in /.in ?/g'`
 cat docs/help/in/Makefile.am.gen|sed "s/@HELPFILES@/$files/g"|sed 's/?/\\?/g'|tr '!?' '\t\n' > docs/help/in/Makefile.am
diff --git a/configure.in b/configure.in
index 9c39a67c..d10d2c1d 100644
--- a/configure.in
+++ b/configure.in
@@ -698,14 +698,6 @@ if test "x$want_ipv6" = "xyes"; then
 	AC_MSG_RESULT($have_ipv6)
 fi
 
-dnl **
-dnl ** IRSSI_VERSION_DATE and IRSSI_VERSION_TIME
-dnl **
-VERSION_DATE=`head -n 2 $srcdir/ChangeLog| grep '^r' | awk '{print $5}' | tr -d '-'`
-VERSION_TIME=`head -n 2 $srcdir/ChangeLog| grep '^r' | awk '{print $6}' | awk -F: '{printf "%d\n", $1$2}'`
-AC_SUBST(VERSION_DATE)
-AC_SUBST(VERSION_TIME)
-
 AC_CONFIG_FILES([
 Makefile
 src/Makefile
@@ -734,7 +726,6 @@ scripts/examples/Makefile
 docs/Makefile
 docs/help/Makefile
 docs/help/in/Makefile
-irssi-version.h
 irssi-config
 ])
 
diff --git a/irssi-version.h.in b/irssi-version.h.in
deleted file mode 100644
index 82c80559..00000000
--- a/irssi-version.h.in
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,3 +0,0 @@
-/* automatically created by configure */
-#define IRSSI_VERSION_DATE @VERSION_DATE@
-#define IRSSI_VERSION_TIME @VERSION_TIME@
diff --git a/irssi-version.sh b/irssi-version.sh
new file mode 100755
index 00000000..c808e8a6
--- /dev/null
+++ b/irssi-version.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,13 @@
+#! /bin/sh
+
+if test -d "$1"/.svn ; then
+	DATE=`LC_ALL=C svn info "$1" | sed -n 's/^Last Changed Date: \(.*\)/\1/p'`
+elif test -d "$1"/.git ; then
+	DATE=`GIT_DIR=$1/.git git log -1 --pretty=format:%ai HEAD`
+else
+	DATE=`awk -F '|' 'NR == 2{print substr($3, 2)}' "$1"/ChangeLog`
+fi
+VERSION_DATE=`echo $DATE | cut -f 1 -d ' ' | tr -d -`
+VERSION_TIME=`echo $DATE | cut -f 2 -d ' ' | awk -F : '{print $1 $2}'`
+echo "#define IRSSI_VERSION_DATE $VERSION_DATE"
+echo "#define IRSSI_VERSION_TIME $VERSION_TIME"