diff --git a/.gitignore b/.gitignore
index 9fe812cee905..4c79ab6406fe 100644
--- a/.gitignore
+++ b/.gitignore
@@ -2,7 +2,8 @@
 /Makefile.in
 /aclocal.m4
 /autom4te.cache
-/build-aux/
+/build-aux/*
+!/build-aux/gen-version
 /config.cache
 /config.guess
 /config.h
@@ -25,6 +26,7 @@
 .deps
 .libs
 .dirstamp
+.version
 codedocs/Makefile
 codedocs/Makefile.in
 /config.log
diff --git a/Makefile.am b/Makefile.am
index 1a1b7aae1e10..d36ebdfb22a0 100644
--- a/Makefile.am
+++ b/Makefile.am
@@ -8,6 +8,8 @@ EXTRA_DIST = \
 	INSTALL \
 	NOTICE \
 	README \
+	.version \
+	build-aux/gen-version \
 	build-scripts/redhat/pdns-server-test.spec \
 	build-scripts/semistaticg++ \
 	codedocs/doxygen.conf \
diff --git a/build-aux/gen-version b/build-aux/gen-version
new file mode 100755
index 000000000000..d761c566ab59
--- /dev/null
+++ b/build-aux/gen-version
@@ -0,0 +1,20 @@
+#!/bin/sh
+VERSION="unknown"
+
+if [ ! -z "$(git rev-parse --abbrev-ref HEAD 2> /dev/null)" ]; then
+  if $(git rev-parse --abbrev-ref HEAD | grep -q 'rel/'); then
+    REL_TYPE="$(git rev-parse --abbrev-ref HEAD | cut -d/ -f 2 | cut -d- -f 1)"
+    VERSION="$(git describe --match=${REL_TYPE}-* --dirty=.dirty | cut -d- -f 2-)"
+  else
+    GIT_VERSION=$(git show --no-patch --format=format:%h HEAD)
+    BRANCH=".$(git rev-parse --abbrev-ref HEAD | perl -p -e 's/-//g;')"
+    [ "${BRANCH}" = ".master" ] && BRANCH=''
+    git status | grep -q clean || DIRTY='.dirty'
+    VERSION="0.0${BRANCH}.${PDNS_BUILD_NUMBER}g${GIT_VERSION}${DIRTY}"
+  fi
+  echo "$VERSION" > .version
+elif [ -f .version ]; then
+  VERSION="$(cat .version)"
+fi
+
+echo $VERSION
diff --git a/configure.ac b/configure.ac
index 4b81411c51d4..80f1cf65df24 100644
--- a/configure.ac
+++ b/configure.ac
@@ -1,9 +1,6 @@
 AC_PREREQ([2.61])
 
-dnl The following lines may be patched by set-version-auth.
-AC_INIT([pdns], [git])
-dnl AC_SUBST([DIST_HOST], [TO_BE_PATCHED])
-dnl End patch area.
+AC_INIT([pdns], m4_esyscmd_s(build-aux/gen-version))
 
 AC_CONFIG_SRCDIR([pdns/receiver.cc])
 AC_CONFIG_MACRO_DIR([m4])
diff --git a/pdns/build-recursor b/pdns/build-recursor
index 380b0c06da92..80888cb0c249 100755
--- a/pdns/build-recursor
+++ b/pdns/build-recursor
@@ -16,20 +16,18 @@ fi
 
 cd pdns-recursor-$VERSION
 export DEBFULLNAME="PowerDNS.COM BV"
-if echo $VERSION | grep -q ^git
-then
-	DEBPKGNAME=pdns-recursor_0.0-$VERSION
-else
-	DEBPKGNAME=pdns-recursor_$VERSION
-fi
+DEBPKGNAME=pdns-recursor_$VERSION
+
 dh_make -e powerdns.support@powerdns.com -s -f ../pdns-recursor-$VERSION.tar.bz2 -p $DEBPKGNAME < /dev/null
 cp pdns-recursor.init.d debian/init.d
 #[ -e debian/control ] || dh_make -e powerdns.support@powerdns.com -s -r cdbs  -f ../pdns-recursor-$VERSION.tar.bz2  < /dev/null
 perl -i -pe 's/Description: <.*>/Description: extremely powerful and versatile recursing nameserver/' debian/control
 # only to be nice to people usind the generated .dsc
-perl -i -pe 's/(Build-Depends: .*)/$1, libboost-dev, libboost-serialization-dev, liblua5.1-0-dev/' debian/control
+perl -i -pe 's/(Build-Depends: .*)/$1, libboost-dev, libboost-serialization-dev, liblua5.2-0-dev/' debian/control
+# Fix the rpm version number
+perl -i -pe "s/Version: .*/Version: ${VERSION}/" pdns-recursor.spec
 export LUA=1
 export STATIC=semi
 ./configure
 fakeroot debian/rules binary
-fakeroot rpmbuild -bb ../pdns-recursor.spec
+fakeroot rpmbuild -bb pdns-recursor.spec
diff --git a/pdns/dist-recursor b/pdns/dist-recursor
index 4cd08e206906..6e085bbf3416 100755
--- a/pdns/dist-recursor
+++ b/pdns/dist-recursor
@@ -78,6 +78,7 @@ mkdir -p $DIRNAME/contrib
 cp ../contrib/systemd-pdns-recursor.service $DIRNAME/contrib
 mkdir -p $DIRNAME/build-scripts/redhat
 cp ../build-scripts/redhat/pdns-recursor-test.spec $DIRNAME/build-scripts/redhat
+cp pdns-recursor.spec $DIRNAME
 
 mkdir -p $DIRNAME/sysdeps
 rm -f sysdeps-recursor/*~
diff --git a/pdns/secpoll-auth.cc b/pdns/secpoll-auth.cc
index fb27bf622ab2..a2f2c7237c70 100644
--- a/pdns/secpoll-auth.cc
+++ b/pdns/secpoll-auth.cc
@@ -167,8 +167,11 @@ void doSecPoll(bool first)
   }
   else {
     string pkgv(PACKAGEVERSION);
-    if(pkgv.find("git"))
+    if(pkgv.find("0.0."))
       L<<Logger::Warning<<"Could not retrieve security status update for '" + pkgv + "' on '"+query+"', RCODE = "<< RCode::to_s(res)<<endl;
+    else
+      L<<Logger::Warning<<"Not validating response for security status update, this a non-release version."<<endl;
+
     if(security_status == 1) // it was ok, not it is unknown
       security_status = 0;
   }
diff --git a/pdns/secpoll-recursor.cc b/pdns/secpoll-recursor.cc
index e70d896013db..ba76bcd6ddd1 100644
--- a/pdns/secpoll-recursor.cc
+++ b/pdns/secpoll-recursor.cc
@@ -51,8 +51,11 @@ void doSecPoll(time_t* last_secpoll)
   }
   else {
     string pkgv(PACKAGEVERSION);
-    if(pkgv.find("git"))
+    if(pkgv.find("0.0."))
       L<<Logger::Warning<<"Could not retrieve security status update for '" +pkgv+ "' on '"+query+"', RCODE = "<< RCode::to_s(res)<<endl;
+    else
+      L<<Logger::Warning<<"Not validating response for security status update, this a non-release version."<<endl;
+
     if(g_security_status == 1) // it was ok, not it is unknown
       g_security_status = 0;
     if(res == RCode::NXDomain) // if we had servfail, keep on trying more more frequently
diff --git a/pdns/sysdeps-recursor/Linux.inc b/pdns/sysdeps-recursor/Linux.inc
index 4bb042f830e8..f96a518d4fec 100644
--- a/pdns/sysdeps-recursor/Linux.inc
+++ b/pdns/sysdeps-recursor/Linux.inc
@@ -8,8 +8,8 @@ endif
 CXXFLAGS := $(CXXFLAGS) -D_GNU_SOURCE -DHAVE_STRCASESTR -std=gnu++11
 CFLAGS := $(CFLAGS) -D_GNU_SOURCE
 
-LUA_CPPFLAGS_CONFIG ?= -I/usr/include/lua5.1
-LUA_LIBS_CONFIG ?= -llua5.1 -rdynamic
+LUA_CPPFLAGS_CONFIG ?= -I/usr/include/lua5.2
+LUA_LIBS_CONFIG ?= -llua5.2 -rdynamic
 
 # Lua 5.0 settings
 #LUA_CPPFLAGS_CONFIG=-I/usr/include/lua50