diff --git a/Makefile.am b/Makefile.am
index d356aacc..8a788d3e 100644
--- a/Makefile.am
+++ b/Makefile.am
@@ -21,7 +21,7 @@ conf_DATA = irssi.conf
 themedir = $(datadir)/irssi/themes
 theme_DATA = default.theme colorless.theme
 
-noinst_HEADERS = irssi-version.h
+noinst_HEADERS = irssi-version.h.in
 
 EXTRA_DIST = \
 	ChangeLog \
diff --git a/configure.in b/configure.in
index 23596412..3dac15ea 100644
--- a/configure.in
+++ b/configure.in
@@ -755,6 +755,14 @@ if test "x$want_ipv6" = "xyes"; then
 	AC_MSG_RESULT($irssi_cv_type_in6_addr)
 fi
 
+dnl **
+dnl ** IRSSI_VERSION_DATE and IRSSI_VERSION_TIME
+dnl **
+VERSION_DATE=`head -1 $srcdir/ChangeLog|sed 's/^\(....\)-\(..\)-\(..\).*/\1\2\3/'`
+VERSION_TIME=`head -1 $srcdir/ChangeLog|sed 's/^[[^ ]]* \(..\):\(..\).*/\1\2/'`
+AC_SUBST(VERSION_DATE)
+AC_SUBST(VERSION_TIME)
+
 AC_OUTPUT(
 Makefile
 src/Makefile
@@ -785,6 +793,7 @@ scripts/Makefile
 docs/Makefile
 docs/help/Makefile
 docs/help/in/Makefile
+irssi-version.h
 stamp.h
 irssi.spec
 irssi-config)
diff --git a/irssi-version.h b/irssi-version.h
deleted file mode 100644
index 6149a637..00000000
--- a/irssi-version.h
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,3 +0,0 @@
-/* This file is updated daily in CVS - not generated by configure */
-#define IRSSI_VERSION "0.7.98.CVS"
-#define IRSSI_VERSION_DATE 20011215
diff --git a/irssi-version.h.in b/irssi-version.h.in
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..349d8c92
--- /dev/null
+++ b/irssi-version.h.in
@@ -0,0 +1,4 @@
+/* automatically created by configure */
+#define IRSSI_VERSION "@VERSION@"
+#define IRSSI_VERSION_DATE @VERSION_DATE@
+#define IRSSI_VERSION_TIME @VERSION_TIME@