diff --git a/release/prep_release.sh b/release/prep_release.sh
index 2f32b400..648e1a7c 100644
--- a/release/prep_release.sh
+++ b/release/prep_release.sh
@@ -26,6 +26,7 @@ PROJECT=btcd
 PROJECT_UC=$(echo $PROJECT | tr '[:lower:]' '[:upper:]')
 SCRIPT=$(basename $0)
 VERFILE=../version.go
+VERFILES="$VERFILE ../util/btcctl/version.go"
 PROJ_CHANGES=../CHANGES
 
 # verify params
@@ -37,11 +38,13 @@ fi
 CUR_DIR=$(pwd)
 cd "$(dirname $0)"
 
-# verify version file exists
-if [ ! -f "$VERFILE" ]; then
-	echo "$SCRIPT: error: $VERFILE does not exist" 1>&2
-	exit 1
-fi
+# verify version files exist
+for verfile in $VERFILES; do
+	if [ ! -f "$verfile" ]; then
+		echo "$SCRIPT: error: $verfile does not exist" 1>&2
+		exit 1
+	fi
+done
 
 # verify changes file exists
 if [ ! -f "$PROJ_CHANGES" ]; then
@@ -172,17 +175,21 @@ awk '
 second_line==1 { print $0 }
 ' <"$PROJ_CHANGES" >>"${PROJ_CHANGES}.tmp"
 
-# update version file with new version
-sed -E "
-    s/${PAT_PREFIX}Major${PAT_SUFFIX}/\1${MAJOR}/;
-    s/${PAT_PREFIX}Minor${PAT_SUFFIX}/\1${MINOR}/;
-    s/${PAT_PREFIX}Patch${PAT_SUFFIX}/\1${PATCH}/;
-" <"$VERFILE" >"${VERFILE}.tmp"
+# update version filef with new version
+for verfile in $VERFILES; do
+	sed -E "
+	    s/${PAT_PREFIX}Major${PAT_SUFFIX}/\1${MAJOR}/;
+	    s/${PAT_PREFIX}Minor${PAT_SUFFIX}/\1${MINOR}/;
+	    s/${PAT_PREFIX}Patch${PAT_SUFFIX}/\1${PATCH}/;
+	" <"$verfile" >"${verfile}.tmp"
+done
 
 
 # Apply changes
 mv "${PROJ_CHANGES}.tmp" "$PROJ_CHANGES"
-mv "${VERFILE}.tmp" "$VERFILE"
+for verfile in $VERFILES; do
+	mv "${verfile}.tmp" "$verfile"
+done
 
 echo "All files have been prepared for release."
 echo "Use the following commands to review the changes for accuracy:"
diff --git a/util/btcctl/config.go b/util/btcctl/config.go
index 75a6495f..642ea793 100644
--- a/util/btcctl/config.go
+++ b/util/btcctl/config.go
@@ -6,6 +6,7 @@ import (
 	"github.com/conformal/go-flags"
 	"os"
 	"path/filepath"
+	"strings"
 )
 
 var (
@@ -19,6 +20,7 @@ var (
 //
 // See loadConfig for details on the configuration load process.
 type config struct {
+	ShowVersion   bool   `short:"V" long:"version" description:"Display version information and exit"`
 	ConfigFile    string `short:"C" long:"configfile" description:"Path to configuration file"`
 	RpcUser       string `short:"u" long:"rpcuser" description:"RPC username"`
 	RpcPassword   string `short:"P" long:"rpcpass" default-mask:"-" description:"RPC password"`
@@ -48,12 +50,20 @@ func loadConfig() (*flags.Parser, *config, []string, error) {
 	}
 
 	// Pre-parse the command line options to see if an alternative config
-	// file was specified.  Any errors can be ignored here since they will
-	// be caught be the final parse below.
+	// file or the version flag was specified.  Any errors can be ignored
+	// here since they will be caught be the final parse below.
 	preCfg := cfg
 	preParser := flags.NewParser(&preCfg, flags.None)
 	preParser.Parse()
 
+	// Show the version and exit if the version flag was specified.
+	if preCfg.ShowVersion {
+		appName := filepath.Base(os.Args[0])
+		appName = strings.TrimSuffix(appName, filepath.Ext(appName))
+		fmt.Println(appName, "version", version())
+		os.Exit(0)
+	}
+
 	// Load additional config from file.
 	parser := flags.NewParser(&cfg, flags.PassDoubleDash|flags.HelpFlag)
 	err := parser.ParseIniFile(preCfg.ConfigFile)
diff --git a/util/btcctl/version.go b/util/btcctl/version.go
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..535faac9
--- /dev/null
+++ b/util/btcctl/version.go
@@ -0,0 +1,72 @@
+// Copyright (c) 2013 Conformal Systems LLC.
+// Use of this source code is governed by an ISC
+// license that can be found in the LICENSE file.
+
+package main
+
+import (
+	"bytes"
+	"fmt"
+	"strings"
+)
+
+// semanticAlphabet
+const semanticAlphabet = "0123456789ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZabcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz-"
+
+// These constants define the application version and follow the semantic
+// versioning 2.0.0 spec (http://semver.org/).
+const (
+	appMajor uint = 0
+	appMinor uint = 3
+	appPatch uint = 3
+
+	// appPreRelease MUST only contain characters from semanticAlphabet
+	// per the semantic versioning spec.
+	appPreRelease = "alpha"
+)
+
+// appBuild is defined as a variable so it can be overridden during the build
+// process with '-ldflags "-X main.appBuild foo' if needed.  It MUST only
+// contain characters from semanticAlphabet per the semantic versioning spec.
+var appBuild string
+
+// version returns the application version as a properly formed string per the
+// semantic versioning 2.0.0 spec (http://semver.org/).
+func version() string {
+	// Start with the major, minor, and patch versions.
+	version := fmt.Sprintf("%d.%d.%d", appMajor, appMinor, appPatch)
+
+	// Append pre-release version if there is one.  The hyphen called for
+	// by the semantic versioning spec is automatically appended and should
+	// not be contained in the pre-release string.  The pre-release version
+	// is not appended if it contains invalid characters.
+	preRelease := normalizeVerString(appPreRelease)
+	if preRelease != "" {
+		version = fmt.Sprintf("%s-%s", version, preRelease)
+	}
+
+	// Append build metadata if there is any.  The plus called for
+	// by the semantic versioning spec is automatically appended and should
+	// not be contained in the build metadata string.  The build metadata
+	// string is not appended if it contains invalid characters.
+	build := normalizeVerString(appBuild)
+	if build != "" {
+		version = fmt.Sprintf("%s+%s", version, build)
+	}
+
+	return version
+}
+
+// normalizeVerString returns the passed string stripped of all characters which
+// are not valid according to the semantic versioning guidelines for pre-release
+// version and build metadata strings.  In particular they MUST only contain
+// characters in semanticAlphabet.
+func normalizeVerString(str string) string {
+	var result bytes.Buffer
+	for _, r := range str {
+		if strings.ContainsRune(semanticAlphabet, r) {
+			result.WriteRune(r)
+		}
+	}
+	return result.String()
+}