diff --git a/compiler/cpp/Makefile.am b/compiler/cpp/Makefile.am
index 1d39a35..892b9a0 100644
--- a/compiler/cpp/Makefile.am
+++ b/compiler/cpp/Makefile.am
@@ -118,29 +118,3 @@
 	$(RM) thriftl.cc thrifty.cc thrifty.h version.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:
-	@printf "Regenerating version.h... "
-	@TMPFILE=`mktemp ./version_h.tmp_XXXXXX` ; \
-		echo "// AUTOGENERATED, DO NOT EDIT" > $$TMPFILE ; \
-		echo '#define THRIFT_VERSION "$(THRIFT_VERSION)"' >> $$TMPFILE ; \
-		echo '#define THRIFT_REVISION "$(THRIFT_REVISION)"' >> $$TMPFILE ; \
-		if cmp $$TMPFILE version.h >/dev/null ; \
-		then \
-			rm -f $$TMPFILE ; \
-			echo "No changes." ; \
-		else \
-			mv $$TMPFILE version.h ; \
-			echo "Updated." ; \
-		fi
diff --git a/compiler/cpp/src/main.cc b/compiler/cpp/src/main.cc
index 2c83690..512245b 100644
--- a/compiler/cpp/src/main.cc
+++ b/compiler/cpp/src/main.cc
@@ -618,7 +618,7 @@
  * Prints the version number
  */
 void version() {
-  printf("Thrift version %s-%s\n", THRIFT_VERSION, THRIFT_REVISION);
+  printf("Thrift version %s\n", THRIFT_VERSION);
 }
 
 /**
diff --git a/compiler/cpp/version.h.in b/compiler/cpp/version.h.in
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..5770ec9
--- /dev/null
+++ b/compiler/cpp/version.h.in
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+#define THRIFT_VERSION "@PACKAGE_VERSION@"