diff --git a/Dockerfile b/Dockerfile
index b641c4b463d..87bd52c965c 100644
--- a/Dockerfile
+++ b/Dockerfile
@@ -32,6 +32,8 @@ ENV GOPATH     /go
 ENV PATH       /go/bin:$PATH
 ENV SRC_PATH   /go/src/github.com/ipfs/go-ipfs
 
+ARG IPFS_VERSION
+
 # Get the go-ipfs sourcecode
 COPY . $SRC_PATH
 
@@ -53,10 +55,11 @@ RUN apk add --update musl go=$GO_VERSION git bash wget ca-certificates \
 	# This saves us quite a bit of image size.
 	&& ref="$(cat .git/HEAD | cut -d' ' -f2)" \
 	&& commit="$(cat .git/$ref | head -c 7)" \
-	&& echo "ldflags=-X github.com/ipfs/go-ipfs/repo/config.CurrentCommit=$commit" \
-	# Build and install IPFS and entrypoint script
+	&& ldflags="-X github.com/ipfs/go-ipfs/repo/config.CurrentCommit=$commit \
+		-X github.com/ipfs/go-ipfs/repo/config.CurrentVersionNumber=$IPFS_VERSION" \
+	&& echo "ldflags: $ldflags" \
 	&& cd $SRC_PATH/cmd/ipfs \
-	&& go build -ldflags "-X github.com/ipfs/go-ipfs/repo/config.CurrentCommit=$commit" \
+	&& go build -ldflags "$ldflags" \
 	&& cp ipfs /usr/local/bin/ipfs \
 	&& cp $SRC_PATH/bin/container_daemon /usr/local/bin/start_ipfs \
 	&& chmod 755 /usr/local/bin/start_ipfs \
diff --git a/Makefile b/Makefile
index 8a3bddb0173..7020a37c699 100644
--- a/Makefile
+++ b/Makefile
@@ -5,8 +5,11 @@ else
   go_test=go test
 endif
 
-COMMIT := $(shell git rev-parse --short HEAD)
-ldflags = "-X "github.com/ipfs/go-ipfs/repo/config".CurrentCommit=$(COMMIT)"
+VERSION := $(shell bin/genversion --version)
+COMMIT := $(shell bin/genversion --commit)
+ldflags = "-X "github.com/ipfs/go-ipfs/repo/config".CurrentVersionNumber=$(VERSION) \
+-X "github.com/ipfs/go-ipfs/repo/config".CurrentCommit=$(COMMIT)"
+
 MAKEFLAGS += --no-print-directory
 
 
@@ -59,8 +62,11 @@ clean:
 uninstall:
 	cd cmd/ipfs && go clean -i -ldflags=$(ldflags)
 
+docker:
+	docker build --build-arg IPFS_VERSION=$(VERSION) .
+
 PHONY += all help godep toolkit_upgrade gx_upgrade gxgo_upgrade gx_check
-PHONY += go_check deps vendor install build nofuse clean uninstall
+PHONY += go_check deps vendor install build nofuse clean uninstall docker
 
 ##############################################################
 # tests targets
diff --git a/bin/genversion b/bin/genversion
new file mode 100755
index 00000000000..030aa6d9847
--- /dev/null
+++ b/bin/genversion
@@ -0,0 +1,78 @@
+#!/bin/bash
+
+#
+# Calls git describe and extracts SemVer-compatible version and meta info
+# Assumes git tags are properly formatted: vX.Y.Z or vX.Y.Z-some-tag
+#
+# Examples:
+#
+#   $ genversion --version
+#   0.4.0-rc2
+#
+# or:
+#
+#   $ genversion --commit
+#   c148.91c6f0f.dirty
+#
+#   (148 commits ahead of the version 0.4.0-rc2, dirty workdir with HEAD at 91c6f0f)
+
+
+PRINT_VERSION=0
+PRINT_COMMIT=0
+
+test $# -ge 1 || PRINT_VERSION=1
+
+while test $# -gt 0; do
+    case "$1" in
+        "--version")
+            PRINT_VERSION=1
+            ;;
+        "--commit")
+            PRINT_COMMIT=1
+            ;;
+    esac
+    shift
+done
+
+
+string_join (){
+    local IFS="$1"
+    shift
+    echo "$*"
+}
+
+if [[ "$PRINT_VERSION" == "1" ]] || [[ "$PRINT_COMMIT" == "1" ]]; then
+    DESCRIBE=( $(git describe --always --tags --match 'v*' --dirty --long | tr '-' '\n') )
+
+    FIELDS=${#DESCRIBE[@]}
+    if [[ "${DESCRIBE[$FIELDS-1]}" == "dirty" ]]; then
+        DIRTY=1
+        FIELDS=$FIELDS-1
+    fi
+    COMMIT_HASH=${DESCRIBE[$FIELDS-1]}
+    COMMIT_NO=${DESCRIBE[$FIELDS-2]}
+    VERSION=$(string_join - ${DESCRIBE[@]:0:$FIELDS-2})
+    VERSION=${VERSION:1}
+    HASH=${DESCRIBE[$FIELDS-1]}
+    COMMIT=$(printf "c%s.%s" ${DESCRIBE[$FIELDS-2]} ${HASH:1})
+
+    if [[ "$DIRTY" == "1" ]]; then
+        COMMIT="$COMMIT.dirty"
+    fi
+
+fi
+
+if [[ "$PRINT_VERSION" == "1" ]]; then
+    printf $VERSION
+fi
+
+if [[ "$PRINT_VERSION" == "1" ]] && [[ "$PRINT_COMMIT" == "1" ]]; then
+    printf "+"
+fi
+
+if [[ "$PRINT_COMMIT" == "1" ]]; then
+    printf $COMMIT
+fi
+
+echo
+
diff --git a/core/commands/version.go b/core/commands/version.go
index c8d3212e2e6..9338ddf2770 100644
--- a/core/commands/version.go
+++ b/core/commands/version.go
@@ -53,7 +53,7 @@ var VersionCmd = &cmds.Command{
 				return nil, err
 			}
 			if found && commit {
-				commitTxt = "-" + v.Commit
+				commitTxt = "+" + v.Commit
 			}
 
 			number, found, err := res.Request().Option("number").Bool()
diff --git a/repo/config/version.go b/repo/config/version.go
index 3acab699bfb..c0e515c7add 100644
--- a/repo/config/version.go
+++ b/repo/config/version.go
@@ -7,13 +7,15 @@ import (
 	"time"
 )
 
+// CurrentVersionNumber and CurrentCommit are normally set via ldflags -X
+
 // CurrentCommit is the current git commit, this is set as a ldflag in the Makefile
 var CurrentCommit string
 
 // CurrentVersionNumber is the current application's version literal
-const CurrentVersionNumber = "0.4.0-dev"
+var CurrentVersionNumber = "0.0.0-dev"
 
-const ApiVersion = "/go-ipfs/" + CurrentVersionNumber + "/"
+var ApiVersion = "/go-ipfs/" + CurrentVersionNumber + "/"
 
 // Version regulates checking if the most recent version is run
 type Version struct {
diff --git a/test/Dockerfile b/test/Dockerfile
index 61a4a2c1f90..3ce2971ea50 100644
--- a/test/Dockerfile
+++ b/test/Dockerfile
@@ -42,12 +42,16 @@ RUN apk add --update musl go=$GO_VERSION git bash wget ca-certificates \
 
 COPY . $SRC_PATH
 
+ARG IPFS_VERSION
+
 RUN cd $SRC_PATH \
 	&& ref="$(cat .git/HEAD | cut -d' ' -f2)" \
 	&& commit="$(cat .git/$ref | head -c 7)" \
-	&& echo "ldflags=-X github.com/ipfs/go-ipfs/repo/config.CurrentCommit=$commit" \
+	&& ldflags="-X github.com/ipfs/go-ipfs/repo/config.CurrentCommit=$commit \
+		-X github.com/ipfs/go-ipfs/repo/config.CurrentVersionNumber=$IPFS_VERSION" \
+	&& echo "ldflags: $ldflags" \
 	&& cd $SRC_PATH/cmd/ipfs \
-	&& go build -ldflags "-X github.com/ipfs/go-ipfs/repo/config.CurrentCommit=$commit" \
+	&& go build -ldflags "$ldflags" \
 	&& cp ipfs /usr/local/bin/ipfs \
 	&& cp $SRC_PATH/bin/container_daemon /usr/local/bin/start_ipfs \
 	&& chmod 755 /usr/local/bin/start_ipfs \
diff --git a/test/ipfs-test-lib.sh b/test/ipfs-test-lib.sh
index 94ed5a77ff0..504381e986b 100644
--- a/test/ipfs-test-lib.sh
+++ b/test/ipfs-test-lib.sh
@@ -48,7 +48,17 @@ shellquote() {
 
 # This takes a Dockerfile, and a build context directory
 docker_build() {
-    docker build --rm -f "$1" "$2"
+    ipfs_version=$($2/bin/genversion --version)
+
+    # Workaround for docker < 1.9
+    if test "$TRAVIS" = true
+    then
+        cat "$1" | sed "s/^ARG IPFS_VERSION.*/ENV IPFS_VERSION=$ipfs_version/" > "$1.travis"
+        docker build --rm -f "$1.travis" "$2"
+        rm "$1.travis"
+    else
+        docker build --rm --build-arg IPFS_VERSION=$ipfs_version -f "$1" "$2"
+    fi
 }
 
 # This takes an image as argument and writes a docker ID on stdout