diff --git a/Makefile b/Makefile
index 55aadcffe91e9..a8f6611433cc2 100644
--- a/Makefile
+++ b/Makefile
@@ -1,10 +1,11 @@
 LOCALE ?= en_US
 
-all: \
+GENERATED_FILES = \
 	d3.js \
 	d3.min.js \
-	component.json \
-	package.json
+	component.json
+
+all: $(GENERATED_FILES)
 
 .PHONY: clean all test
 
@@ -22,7 +23,9 @@ src/time/format-localized.js: src/locale.js src/time/format-locale.js
 
 d3.js: $(shell node_modules/.bin/smash --list src/d3.js)
 	@rm -f $@
-	node_modules/.bin/smash src/d3.js | node_modules/.bin/uglifyjs - -b indent-level=2 -o $@
+	node_modules/.bin/smash src/d3.js \
+		| sed 's/[[:<:]]VERSION[[:>:]]/"$(shell ./version)"/' \
+		| node_modules/.bin/uglifyjs - -b indent-level=2 -o $@
 	@chmod a-w $@
 
 d3.min.js: d3.js
@@ -34,10 +37,5 @@ component.json: src/component.js d3.js
 	node src/component.js > $@
 	@chmod a-w $@
 
-package.json: src/package.js d3.js
-	@rm -f $@
-	node src/package.js > $@
-	@chmod a-w $@
-
 clean:
-	rm -f d3*.js package.json component.json
+	rm -f $(GENERATED_FILES)
diff --git a/src/component.js b/src/component.js
index 79b83c875e86c..0c252fb247c0d 100644
--- a/src/component.js
+++ b/src/component.js
@@ -1,8 +1,6 @@
-var d3 = require("../index");
-
 console.log(JSON.stringify({
   "name": "d3",
-  "version": d3.version,
+  "version": require("../package.json").version,
   "main": "index-browserify.js",
   "scripts": ["index-browserify.js", "d3.js"]
 }, null, 2));
diff --git a/src/package.js b/src/package.js
deleted file mode 100644
index e2c6b592341b3..0000000000000
--- a/src/package.js
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,55 +0,0 @@
-var d3 = require("../index");
-
-console.log(JSON.stringify({
-  "name": "d3",
-  "version": d3.version,
-  "description": "A small, free JavaScript library for manipulating documents based on data.",
-  "keywords": [
-    "dom",
-    "w3c",
-    "visualization",
-    "svg",
-    "animation",
-    "canvas"
-  ],
-  "homepage": "http://d3js.org",
-  "author": {
-    "name": "Mike Bostock",
-    "url": "http://bost.ocks.org/mike"
-  },
-  "contributors": [
-    {
-      "name": "Jason Davies",
-      "url": "http://jasondavies.com"
-    }
-  ],
-  "repository": {
-    "type": "git",
-    "url": "https://github.com/mbostock/d3.git"
-  },
-  "main": "index.js",
-  "browserify": "index-browserify.js",
-  "jam": {
-    "main": "d3.js",
-    "shim": {
-      "exports": "d3"
-    }
-  },
-  "dependencies": {
-    "jsdom": "~0.5.3"
-  },
-  "devDependencies": {
-    "smash": "~0.0.8",
-    "uglify-js": "git://github.com/mishoo/UglifyJS2.git#3bd7ca9961125b39dcd54d2182cb72bd1ca6006e",
-    "vows": "0.7.x"
-  },
-  "scripts": {
-    "test": "node_modules/.bin/vows"
-  },
-  "licenses": [
-    {
-      "type": "BSD",
-      "url": "https://github.com/mbostock/d3/blob/master/LICENSE"
-    }
-  ]
-}, null, 2));
diff --git a/src/start.js b/src/start.js
index 109f9c88379f0..1a2e175ced33d 100644
--- a/src/start.js
+++ b/src/start.js
@@ -1,2 +1,2 @@
 d3 = (function(){
-  var d3 = {version: "3.1.5"}; // semver
+  var d3 = {version: VERSION}; // semver
diff --git a/test/load.js b/test/load.js
index 2ca595244180a..aba1082ae0b40 100644
--- a/test/load.js
+++ b/test/load.js
@@ -1,14 +1,15 @@
 process.env.TZ = "America/Los_Angeles";
 
 var smash = require("smash"),
-    jsdom = require("jsdom");
+    jsdom = require("jsdom"),
+    version = require("../package.json").version;
 
 require("./XMLHttpRequest");
 
 module.exports = function() {
   var files = [].slice.call(arguments).map(function(d) { return "src/" + d; }),
       expression = "d3",
-      sandbox = null;
+      sandbox = {VERSION: version};
 
   files.unshift("src/start");
   files.push("src/end");
@@ -34,6 +35,7 @@ module.exports = function() {
     };
 
     sandbox = {
+      VERSION: version,
       console: console,
       XMLHttpRequest: XMLHttpRequest,
       document: document,
diff --git a/version b/version
new file mode 100755
index 0000000000000..f9b72693eecca
--- /dev/null
+++ b/version
@@ -0,0 +1,3 @@
+#!/usr/bin/env node
+
+console.log(require("./package.json").version);