diff --git a/VERSION b/VERSION
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000000..d1b2a27ab74d8
--- /dev/null
+++ b/VERSION
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+0 (pre-release)
diff --git a/j/.gitignore b/j/.gitignore
index 2f66d75c364da..b972ecad94c43 100644
--- a/j/.gitignore
+++ b/j/.gitignore
@@ -1,2 +1,2 @@
 /pcre_h.j
-/sys.ji
+/version.j
diff --git a/j/Makefile b/j/Makefile
index 4f10d4b1dc80e..a8c4a2ee5ff24 100644
--- a/j/Makefile
+++ b/j/Makefile
@@ -2,8 +2,10 @@ JULIAHOME = $(shell pwd)/..
 include ../Make.inc
 
 PCRE_CONST = 0x[0-9a-fA-F]+|[-+]?\s*[0-9]+
-COMMITVER=$(shell git log -1 | head -n1 | cut -b8-47)
-COMMITDATE=$(shell git log -1 | head -n3 | tail -n1 | cut -b 9-50)
+
+JULIA_VERSION=$(shell cat ../VERSION)
+COMMIT_HASH=$(shell git log -1 --pretty=format:%H)
+COMMIT_DATE=$(shell git log -1 --pretty=format:%ct | xargs perl -MPOSIX=strftime -le 'print strftime "%F %T", gmtime $$ARGV[0]')
 
 all: pcre_h.j version.j
 
@@ -11,7 +13,7 @@ pcre_h.j:
 	cpp -dM $(EXTROOT)/include/pcre.h | perl -nle '/^\s*#define\s+(PCRE\w*)\s*\(?($(PCRE_CONST))\)?\s*$$/ and print "$$1 = $$2"' | sort > $@
 
 version.j:
-	echo "version() = (0.5, \"$(COMMITVER)\", \"$(COMMITDATE)\")" > version.j
+	echo "VERSION = (\"$(JULIA_VERSION)\", \"$(COMMIT_HASH)\", \"$(COMMIT_DATE)\")" > version.j
 
 clean:
 	rm -f pcre_h.j version.j
diff --git a/j/client.j b/j/client.j
index 18e7206c4ec0f..5a9a9a6b0124d 100644
--- a/j/client.j
+++ b/j/client.j
@@ -97,9 +97,8 @@ function color_available()
     false
 end
 
-jl_version_string = strcat("Version ", version()[1], " (pre-release)")
-jl_commit_string = strcat("Commit ", version()[2])
-jl_commit_date = version()[3]
+jl_version_string = "Version $(VERSION[1])"
+jl_commit_string = "Commit $(VERSION[2][1:10]) ($(VERSION[3]))"
 
 jl_banner_plain =
 L"               _
@@ -108,7 +107,7 @@ L"               _
    _ _   _| |_  __ _   |  $jl_version_string
   | | | | | | |/ _` |  |
   | | |_| | | | (_| |  |  $jl_commit_string
- _/ |\__'_|_|_|\__'_|  |  $jl_commit_date
+ _/ |\__'_|_|_|\__'_|  |
 |__/                   |
 
 "
@@ -127,7 +126,7 @@ jl_banner_color =
    $(jl)_ _   _| |_  __ _$(tx)   |  $jl_version_string
   $(jl)| | | | | | |/ _` |$(tx)  |
   $(jl)| | |_| | | | (_| |$(tx)  |  $jl_commit_string
- $(jl)_/ |\\__'_|_|_|\\__'_|$(tx)  |  $jl_commit_date
+ $(jl)_/ |\\__'_|_|_|\\__'_|$(tx)  |
 $(jl)|__/$(tx)                   |
 
 \033[0m"