diff --git a/Makefile b/Makefile
index c07b6bb5b8..0b86e3a981 100644
--- a/Makefile
+++ b/Makefile
@@ -121,21 +121,7 @@ include $(SRC_PATH)/rules.mak
 # lor is defined in rules.mak
 CONFIG_BLOCK := $(call lor,$(CONFIG_SOFTMMU),$(CONFIG_TOOLS))
 
-# Create QEMU_PKGVERSION and FULL_VERSION strings
-# If PKGVERSION is set, use that; otherwise get version and -dirty status from git
-QEMU_PKGVERSION := $(if $(PKGVERSION),$(PKGVERSION),$(shell \
-  cd $(SRC_PATH); \
-  if test -e .git; then \
-    git describe --match 'v*' 2>/dev/null | tr -d '\n'; \
-    if ! git diff-index --quiet HEAD &>/dev/null; then \
-      echo "-dirty"; \
-    fi; \
-  fi))
-
-# Either "version (pkgversion)", or just "version" if pkgversion not set
-FULL_VERSION := $(if $(QEMU_PKGVERSION),$(VERSION) ($(QEMU_PKGVERSION)),$(VERSION))
-
-generated-files-y = qemu-version.h config-host.h qemu-options.def
+generated-files-y = config-host.h qemu-options.def
 
 generated-files-y += module_block.h
 
@@ -275,17 +261,6 @@ include $(SRC_PATH)/tests/Makefile.include
 
 all: $(DOCS) $(if $(BUILD_DOCS),sphinxdocs) $(TOOLS) $(HELPERS-y) recurse-all modules
 
-qemu-version.h: FORCE
-	$(call quiet-command, \
-                (printf '#define QEMU_PKGVERSION "$(QEMU_PKGVERSION)"\n'; \
-		printf '#define QEMU_FULL_VERSION "$(FULL_VERSION)"\n'; \
-		) > $@.tmp)
-	$(call quiet-command, if ! cmp -s $@ $@.tmp; then \
-	  mv $@.tmp $@; \
-	 else \
-	  rm $@.tmp; \
-	 fi)
-
 config-host.h: config-host.h-timestamp
 config-host.h-timestamp: config-host.mak
 qemu-options.def: $(SRC_PATH)/qemu-options.hx $(SRC_PATH)/scripts/hxtool
diff --git a/meson.build b/meson.build
index b4a2f9db3a..e8df2a6fb0 100644
--- a/meson.build
+++ b/meson.build
@@ -158,6 +158,7 @@ have_block = have_system or have_tools
 
 # Generators
 
+genh = []
 qapi_gen = find_program('scripts/qapi-gen.py')
 qapi_gen_depends = [ meson.source_root() / 'scripts/qapi/__init__.py',
                      meson.source_root() / 'scripts/qapi/commands.py',
@@ -183,6 +184,17 @@ tracetool = [
    '--backend=' + config_host['TRACE_BACKENDS']
 ]
 
+qemu_version_cmd = [find_program('scripts/qemu-version.sh'),
+                    meson.current_source_dir(),
+                    config_host['PKGVERSION'], config_host['VERSION']]
+qemu_version = custom_target('qemu-version.h',
+                             output: 'qemu-version.h',
+                             command: qemu_version_cmd,
+                             capture: true,
+                             build_by_default: true,
+                             build_always_stale: true)
+genh += qemu_version
+
 # Collect sourcesets.
 
 util_ss = ss.source_set()
@@ -283,8 +295,6 @@ trace_events_subdirs += [
   'util',
 ]
 
-genh = []
-
 subdir('qapi')
 subdir('qobject')
 subdir('stubs')
diff --git a/scripts/qemu-version.sh b/scripts/qemu-version.sh
new file mode 100755
index 0000000000..4847385e42
--- /dev/null
+++ b/scripts/qemu-version.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,25 @@
+#!/bin/sh
+
+set -eu
+
+dir="$1"
+pkgversion="$2"
+version="$3"
+
+if [ -z "$pkgversion"]; then
+    cd "$dir"
+    if [ -e .git ]; then
+        pkgversion=$(git describe --match 'v*' --dirty | echo "")
+    fi
+fi
+
+if [ -n "$pkgversion" ]; then
+    fullversion="$version ($pkgversion)"
+else
+    fullversion="$version"
+fi
+
+cat <<EOF
+#define QEMU_PKGVERSION "$pkgversion"
+#define QEMU_FULL_VERSION "$fullversion"
+EOF