diff --git a/Makefile b/Makefile
index c4ed7bc..cbc9d3d 100644
--- a/Makefile
+++ b/Makefile
@@ -6,6 +6,13 @@ with-bird=no
 
 class.sources = comport.c
 
+comport.version := $(shell sed -n \
+    's|^\#X text [0-9][0-9]* [0-9][0-9]* VERSION \(.*\);|\1|p' \
+    comport-meta.pd)
+
+cflags = -DVERSION='"$(comport.version)"'
+
+
 datafiles = \
 	comport-help.pd \
 	comport-meta.pd \