diff --git a/closure.c b/closure.c
index 969e68f..2688ba2 100644
--- a/closure.c
+++ b/closure.c
@@ -432,7 +432,10 @@ void InitClosure()
 
    /* Extract the version string */
 
-#ifdef HAVE_UNSTABLE_RELEASE
+#if defined(HAVE_UNSTABLE_RELEASE) && defined(PATCHLEVEL)
+   Closure->cookedVersion = g_strdup_printf("%s (unstable-unofficial patchlevel %d)", VERSION, PATCHLEVEL);
+   Closure->releaseFlags = MFLAG_DEVEL;
+#elif defined(HAVE_UNSTABLE_RELEASE)
    Closure->cookedVersion = g_strdup_printf("%s (unstable)", VERSION);
    Closure->releaseFlags = MFLAG_DEVEL;
 #else
diff --git a/configure b/configure
index b17164b..3f8d3ad 100755
--- a/configure
+++ b/configure
@@ -4,7 +4,7 @@
 
 BASH_BASED_CONFIGURE=./scripts/bash-based-configure
 REQUIRED_CFLAGS="-D_FILE_OFFSET_BITS=64 -D_LARGEFILE_SOURCE -D_LARGEFILE64_SOURCE -I." 
-RECOMMENDED_CFLAGS="-O2 -fomit-frame-pointer -Wall -Werror -Wno-deprecated-declarations -Wno-stringop-truncation"
+RECOMMENDED_CFLAGS="-DPATCHLEVEL=1 -O2 -fomit-frame-pointer -Wall -Werror -Wno-deprecated-declarations -Wno-stringop-truncation"
 DEBUG_CFLAGS="-ggdb -Wall"
 
 if [ "$CLI_ONLY" = 1 ]; then