diff --git a/CMakeLists.txt b/CMakeLists.txt
index b23f49e80..2e6149ed3 100644
--- a/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -4,7 +4,7 @@
 #
 cmake_minimum_required (VERSION 2.6)
 project (zoneminder)
-set(zoneminder_VERSION "1.30.0")
+file (STRINGS "version" zoneminder_VERSION)
 # make API version a minor of ZM version
 set(zoneminder_API_VERSION "${zoneminder_VERSION}.1")