Add gitversion Debian build option.
diff --git a/bld/get-version b/bld/get-version
index 15e5051..c246a3c 100755
--- a/bld/get-version
+++ b/bld/get-version
@@ -12,7 +12,7 @@
 # first. This favours, eg v2.63 over 2.63rc6.
 
 if which git >/dev/null 2>&1 && [ -d $1/.git ]; then
-     cd $1; git describe
+     cd $1; git describe | sed 's/^v//'
 elif grep '\$Format:%d\$' $1/VERSION >/dev/null 2>&1; then
 # unsubstituted VERSION, but no git available.
     echo UNKNOWN
diff --git a/debian/readme b/debian/readme
index cb5f7c9..73705d8 100644
--- a/debian/readme
+++ b/debian/readme
@@ -64,7 +64,9 @@
       noi18n      : omit translations and internationalisation support.
       noidn       : omit international domain name support, must be
                     combined with noi18n to be effective.
-      
+      gitversion  : set the version of the produced packages from the
+                    git-derived versioning information on the source,
+                    rather the the debian changelog. 
 
 (9) Dnsmasq comes as three packages - dnsmasq-utils, dnsmasq-base and
     dnsmasq. Dnsmasq-base provides the dnsmasq executable and
diff --git a/debian/rules b/debian/rules
index e658683..4ad2dd8 100755
--- a/debian/rules
+++ b/debian/rules
@@ -23,6 +23,11 @@
 
 DEB_BUILD_ARCH_OS := $(shell dpkg-architecture -qDEB_BUILD_ARCH_OS)
 
+# Force package version based on git tags.
+ifneq (,$(filter gitversion,$(DEB_BUILD_OPTIONS)))
+     PACKAGE_VERSION = $(shell bld/get-version `pwd` |  sed 's/[a-z]/~&/; s/$$/-1/; s/^/-v/')
+endif
+
 ifeq (,$(filter nodbus,$(DEB_BUILD_OPTIONS)))
      COPTS += -DHAVE_DBUS
 endif
@@ -103,7 +108,7 @@
 	install -m 644 debian/insserv debian/daemon/etc/insserv.conf.d/dnsmasq
 	ln -s $(package) debian/daemon/usr/share/doc/dnsmasq
 	cd debian/daemon && find . -type f ! -regex '.*DEBIAN/.*' -printf '%P\0' | xargs -r0 md5sum > DEBIAN/md5sums	
-	dpkg-gencontrol -pdnsmasq -Pdebian/daemon
+	dpkg-gencontrol $(PACKAGE_VERSION) -pdnsmasq -Pdebian/daemon
 	chown -R root.root debian/daemon
 	chmod -R g-ws debian/daemon
 	dpkg --build debian/daemon ..
@@ -151,7 +156,7 @@
 endif
 	cd debian/base && find . -type f ! -regex '.*DEBIAN/.*' -printf '%P\0' | xargs -r0 md5sum > DEBIAN/md5sums
 	dpkg-shlibdeps debian/base/usr/sbin/dnsmasq
-	dpkg-gencontrol -pdnsmasq-base -Pdebian/base
+	dpkg-gencontrol $(PACKAGE_VERSION) -pdnsmasq-base -Pdebian/base
 	chown -R root.root debian/base
 	chmod -R g-ws debian/base 
 	dpkg --build debian/base ..
@@ -178,7 +183,7 @@
 endif	
 	cd debian/utils && find . -type f ! -regex '.*DEBIAN/.*' -printf '%P\0' | xargs -r0 md5sum > DEBIAN/md5sums
 	dpkg-shlibdeps -Tdebian/utils-substvars debian/utils/usr/bin/dhcp_release debian/utils/usr/bin/dhcp_lease_time
-	dpkg-gencontrol -Tdebian/utils-substvars -pdnsmasq-utils -Pdebian/utils
+	dpkg-gencontrol $(PACKAGE_VERSION) -Tdebian/utils-substvars -pdnsmasq-utils -Pdebian/utils
 	chown -R root.root debian/utils
 	chmod -R g-ws debian/utils 
 	dpkg --build debian/utils ..