diff --git a/packages/Makefile b/packages/Makefile
index 966e3212a50df40529f9dfca8f22635bb34558d7..9ffc982275774ef8c9881b6eb38d75e55d35e244 100644
--- a/packages/Makefile
+++ b/packages/Makefile
@@ -128,7 +128,7 @@ HAVE_AUTOGEN_SH := $(wildcard $(pd_src)/autogen.sh)
 ifeq (autogen.sh, $(findstring autogen.sh,$(HAVE_AUTOGEN_SH)))
 #----------------------------------------------------------------------------#
 # new autotools build system
-pd: set_version
+pd: git_version
 	cd $(pd_src) \
 		&& ./autogen.sh \
 		&& ./configure $(PD_CONFIGURE_FLAGS) \
@@ -154,7 +154,7 @@ $(pd_src)/src/configure: $(pd_src)/src/configure.ac
 #	cd $(pd_src)/src/ && ./configure $(PD_CONFIGURE_FLAGS)
 
 # this line has the "-" to support the current makefile.mingw hack
-pd: $(pd_src)/src/configure set_version
+pd: $(pd_src)/src/configure git_version
 	-cd $(pd_src)/src && ./configure $(PD_CONFIGURE_FLAGS) && \
 		make OPT_CFLAGS="" depend  && \
 		make $(DEST_PATHS) $(PD_BUILD_FLAGS)
@@ -477,19 +477,28 @@ devsymlinks_clean:
 	-sudo rm -f /usr/local/lib/libtcl*.dylib /usr/local/lib/libtk*.dylib
 	-sudo rm -f /usr/local/lib/libtclstub*.a /usr/local/lib/libtkstub*.a
 
+# AG: The set_version target is broken since it modifies m_pd.h in-place
+# during the build, which is a bad thing to do to files which are supposed to
+# be kept in a source code repository. Instead, let's generate m_pd.h from
+# m_pd.h.in, where the latter is kept in the repo and the former gets created
+# from the latter when needed.
+
+git_version: $(pd_src)/src/m_pd.h.in
+	cd $(pd_src)/src/ && \
+	sed 's|^\(#define PD_TEST_VERSION "\).*"|\1$(GIT_VERSION)"|' m_pd.h.in > m_pd.h
 
 set_version:
 # change Pd's version number to reflect the extended build
 # this needs the complete_version_defines patch to work
 	cd $(pd_src)/src/ && \
-		sed 's|^\(#define PD_TEST_VERSION "\).*"|\1$(PD-EXTENDED_VERSION)"|' m_pd.h > \
+		sed 's|^\(#define PD_TEST_VERSION "\).*"|\1$(GIT_VERSION)"|' m_pd.h > \
 			m_pd.h.tmp && mv m_pd.h.tmp m_pd.h
 
 unset_version:
 # change the version number back to the original 
 # this needs the complete_version_defines patch to work
 	cd $(pd_src)/src && \
-		sed 's|^\(#define PD_TEST_VERSION ".*\)$(PD-EXTENDED_VERSION_PREFIX).*"|\1"|' \
+		sed 's|^\(#define PD_TEST_VERSION ".*\)$(GIT_VERSION_PREFIX).*"|\1"|' \
 			m_pd.h > m_pd.h.tmp && \
 		mv m_pd.h.tmp m_pd.h
 
@@ -554,7 +563,7 @@ patch_pd_devel:
 # change Pd's version number to reflect the extended build
 # this needs the complete_version_defines patch to work
 	cd $(pd_src)/src/ && \
-		sed 's|^\(#define PD_TEST_VERSION "\).*"|\1$(PD-EXTENDED_VERSION)"|' m_pd.h > \
+		sed 's|^\(#define PD_TEST_VERSION "\).*"|\1$(GIT_VERSION)"|' m_pd.h > \
 			m_pd.h.tmp && mv m_pd.h.tmp m_pd.h
 	@echo " "
 	@echo "patching completed."
@@ -564,7 +573,7 @@ unpatch_pd_devel:
 # change the version number back to the original 
 # this needs the complete_version_defines patch to work
 	cd $(pd_src)/src && \
-		sed 's|^\(#define PD_TEST_VERSION ".*\)$(PD-EXTENDED_VERSION)"|\1"|' \
+		sed 's|^\(#define PD_TEST_VERSION ".*\)$(GIT_VERSION)"|\1"|' \
 			m_pd.h > m_pd.h.tmp && \
 		mv m_pd.h.tmp m_pd.h
 # apply all platform-specific patches
@@ -611,7 +620,7 @@ distclean: cruft_clean
 
 test_locations:
 	@echo "PD_VERSION: $(PD_VERSION)"
-	@echo "PD-EXTENDED_VERSION: $(PD-EXTENDED_VERSION)"
+	@echo "GIT_VERSION: $(GIT_VERSION)"
 	@echo "CWD $(CWD)"
 	@echo "DESTDIR $(DESTDIR)"
 	@echo "PREFIX $(prefix)"
diff --git a/packages/Makefile.buildlayout b/packages/Makefile.buildlayout
index 2681e7a8f594783412830e114e55f6839b7ea105..1124e3e8080c5ba11bb7d8468ad28f3232f1b38f 100644
--- a/packages/Makefile.buildlayout
+++ b/packages/Makefile.buildlayout
@@ -168,26 +168,48 @@ installdirs: $(DESTDIR) $(bindir) $(examplesdir) $(pddocdir) $(includedir) $(hel
 #==============================================================================#
 
 
-PD_MAJOR_VERSION := $(shell grep PD_MAJOR_VERSION $(pd_src)/src/m_pd.h | \
+# AG: "Abandon hope all ye who enter here." Past this point lies madness. Most
+# of Pd's version information is kept in m_pd.h, but some of it needs to be
+# generated at build time to keep in sync with git sources. Since we don't
+# want to have files in the repo which get updated with every build, we use a
+# template m_pd.h.in for m_pd.h instead. The stable version parts (only
+# updated by editing m_pd.h.in manually) can be read from there.
+
+PD_MAJOR_VERSION := $(shell grep PD_MAJOR_VERSION $(pd_src)/src/m_pd.h.in | \
 	sed 's|^.define *PD_MAJOR_VERSION *\([0-9]*\).*|\1|' )
-PD_MINOR_VERSION := $(shell grep PD_MINOR_VERSION $(pd_src)/src/m_pd.h | \
+PD_MINOR_VERSION := $(shell grep PD_MINOR_VERSION $(pd_src)/src/m_pd.h.in | \
 	sed 's|^.define *PD_MINOR_VERSION *\([0-9]*\).*|\1|' )
-PD_BUGFIX_VERSION := $(shell grep PD_BUGFIX_VERSION $(pd_src)/src/m_pd.h | \
+PD_BUGFIX_VERSION := $(shell grep PD_BUGFIX_VERSION $(pd_src)/src/m_pd.h.in | \
 	sed 's|^.define *PD_BUGFIX_VERSION *\([0-9]*\).*|\1|' )
-PD_TEST_VERSION := $(shell grep PD_TEST_VERSION $(pd_src)/src/m_pd.h | \
-	sed 's|^.define *PD_TEST_VERSION *"\(.*\)".*|\1|' )
+#PD_TEST_VERSION := $(shell grep PD_TEST_VERSION $(pd_src)/src/m_pd.h | \
+#	sed 's|^.define *PD_TEST_VERSION *"\(.*\)".*|\1|' )
 #PD_VERSION = $(PD_MAJOR_VERSION).$(PD_MINOR_VERSION).$(PD_BUGFIX_VERSION)
-PD_VERSION := $(PD_TEST_VERSION)
 #ifneq ($(PD_TEST_VERSION),)
 #	PD_VERSION := $(PD_VERSION)-$(PD_TEST_VERSION)
 #endif
 
-VERSION_DATE := $(shell date +%Y%m%d)
+# AG: version number based on the actual git revision and date. We use this
+# both for the PD_TEST_VERSION and for the package name and accompanying
+# materials (ReadMe files and such). Note that this will only work when
+# building directly from a clone of the git repo, and of course you'll need to
+# have git installed.
+GIT_VERSION := $(shell git log -1 --format=%cd --date=short | sed -e 's/-//g')-rev.$(shell git rev-parse --short HEAD)
+
+# AG: Untangle the hall of mirrors that is PD_TEST_VERSION. m_pd.h won't exist
+# or will at least be outdated when the build starts, so we can't simply read
+# it from there. Since we always use the package version (git revision and
+# date, see GIT_VERSION below), we just set it directly instead.
+
+PD_TEST_VERSION := $(GIT_VERSION)
+
+# AG: This is being used for the package name and accompanying materials. For
+# Pd-l2ork the vanilla Pd version numbers are rather meaningless (they are
+# mainly kept around so that 3rd party externals and abstractions know what
+# iteration of the vanilla API they have available). Instead, we use a version
+# number derived from PD_TEST_VERSION.
+PD_VERSION := $(PD_TEST_VERSION)
 
-# release version for this distro
-#PD-EXTENDED_VERSION_PREFIX = l2ork
-#PD-EXTENDED_VERSION = $(PD-EXTENDED_VERSION_PREFIX)-$(VERSION_DATE)
-PD-EXTENDED_VERSION = $(VERSION_DATE)
+VERSION_DATE := $(shell date +%Y%m%d)
 
 PACKAGE_NAME = Pd-l2ork-$(PD_VERSION)-`uname -m`
 
diff --git a/packages/win32_inno/Makefile b/packages/win32_inno/Makefile
index 18aa4ebded6feb59f2d71dfb23552a9ec398f7af..7080d93b2242a63d431e2de63150e9d3bc91161f 100755
--- a/packages/win32_inno/Makefile
+++ b/packages/win32_inno/Makefile
@@ -145,7 +145,7 @@ $(PD_INNO_SETUP): $(PD_INNO_SETUP).in
 	cat "$(PD_INNO_SETUP).in" | \
 		sed 's/PACKAGE_NAME/$(PACKAGE_NAME)/g' | \
 		sed 's/PD_VERSION/$(PD_VERSION)/g' | \
-		sed 's/PD-EXTENDED_VERSION/$(PD-EXTENDED_VERSION)/g' > \
+		sed 's/GIT_VERSION/$(GIT_VERSION)/g' > \
 		$(PD_INNO_SETUP)
 #	start $(PD_INNO_SETUP)
 
@@ -182,7 +182,7 @@ test_package:
 test_locations:
 	@echo --------------------------------------------------
 	@echo "PD_VERSION: $(PD_VERSION)"
-	@echo "PD-EXTENDED_VERSION: $(PD-EXTENDED_VERSION)"
+	@echo "GIT_VERSION: $(GIT_VERSION)"
 	@echo "CWD $(CWD)"
 	@echo "DESTDIR $(DESTDIR)"
 	@echo "PREFIX $(prefix)"
diff --git a/pd/src/m_pd.h b/pd/src/m_pd.h.in
similarity index 99%
rename from pd/src/m_pd.h
rename to pd/src/m_pd.h.in
index 1a96393de33e27b92f2746255a63eb7a9e99dee4..df32a95d318e3f43481ad842754afa7e0d646c9e 100644
--- a/pd/src/m_pd.h
+++ b/pd/src/m_pd.h.in
@@ -13,7 +13,7 @@ extern "C" {
 #define PD_MAJOR_VERSION 0
 #define PD_MINOR_VERSION 42
 #define PD_BUGFIX_VERSION 7
-#define PD_TEST_VERSION "20160525"
+#define PD_TEST_VERSION "date/revision goes here"
 #define PDL2ORK
 extern int pd_compatibilitylevel;   /* e.g., 43 for pd 0.43 compatibility */