diff --git a/etcd.go b/etcd.go
index 05720fb357b..a0c6c5f3912 100644
--- a/etcd.go
+++ b/etcd.go
@@ -2,6 +2,7 @@ package main
 
 import (
 	"flag"
+	"fmt"
 	"io/ioutil"
 	"os"
 	"strings"
@@ -31,6 +32,8 @@ var (
 
 	force bool
 
+	printVersion bool
+
 	maxSize int
 
 	snapshot bool
@@ -45,6 +48,8 @@ var (
 )
 
 func init() {
+	flag.BoolVar(&printVersion, "version", false, "print the version and exit")
+
 	flag.BoolVar(&log.Verbose, "v", false, "verbose logging")
 	flag.BoolVar(&veryVerbose, "vv", false, "very verbose logging")
 
@@ -116,6 +121,11 @@ type Info struct {
 func main() {
 	flag.Parse()
 
+	if printVersion {
+		fmt.Println(server.ReleaseVersion)
+		os.Exit(0)
+	}
+
 	if cpuprofile != "" {
 		runCPUProfile()
 	}
diff --git a/scripts/release-version b/scripts/release-version
index c1fdaba0768..77db798378c 100755
--- a/scripts/release-version
+++ b/scripts/release-version
@@ -4,5 +4,5 @@ VER=$(git describe --tags HEAD)
 
 cat <<EOF
 package server
-const releaseVersion = "$VER"
+const ReleaseVersion = "$VER"
 EOF
diff --git a/server/server.go b/server/server.go
index 36df79f6fc1..16844d492d7 100644
--- a/server/server.go
+++ b/server/server.go
@@ -195,7 +195,7 @@ func (s *Server) OriginAllowed(origin string) bool {
 // Handler to return the current version of etcd.
 func (s *Server) GetVersionHandler(w http.ResponseWriter, req *http.Request) error {
 	w.WriteHeader(http.StatusOK)
-	fmt.Fprintf(w, "etcd %s", releaseVersion)
+	fmt.Fprintf(w, "etcd %s", ReleaseVersion)
 	return nil
 }
 
diff --git a/server/version.go b/server/version.go
index c9e2a48c095..354bda3a5bb 100644
--- a/server/version.go
+++ b/server/version.go
@@ -5,4 +5,4 @@ const Version = "v2"
 // TODO: The release version (generated from the git tag) will be the raft
 // protocol version for now. When things settle down we will fix it like the
 // client API above.
-const PeerVersion = releaseVersion
+const PeerVersion = ReleaseVersion