diff --git a/Makefile.am b/Makefile.am
index cd0d8833c6e6a161b61c02de309393a097e3ebe9..b8d18d4c0b7cb7e11d313091d017d152152dfa43 100644
--- a/Makefile.am
+++ b/Makefile.am
@@ -70,3 +70,10 @@ check-logs:
 	./contrib/checkLogs.pl                        \
 		src/*/*.[ch] | sort -n
 
+version:
+	@echo "Tor @VERSION@"
+	@if test -d "$(top_srcdir)/.git" && test -x "`which git 2>&1;true`"; then \
+	   echo -n "git: " ;\
+	   (cd "$(top_srcdir)" && git rev-parse --short=16 HEAD); \
+	fi
+
diff --git a/changes/make_version b/changes/make_version
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..b736a875ef7af8eae7d9c469bc042420fadf3c80
--- /dev/null
+++ b/changes/make_version
@@ -0,0 +1,4 @@
+  o Minor features (build):
+    - Running "make version" now displays the version of Tor that
+      we're about to build. Idea from katmagic; resolves issue 4400.
+