Right now when I run gsi, it tells me I'm using gambit 4.8.8. But that's not quite right. If I use git describe --tags to ask git what I'm using it tells me v4.8.8-402-g300db59e, so some well-identified commit with 402 patchs on top of Gambit 4.8.8.
I recently modified Gerbil to it remembers the exact version as identified by git describe --tags in its binaries. Basically, a file is generated during the build if git is available; when preparing a tarball for use without git, the file must be present. For release purposes, and so as to reuse github's builtin tarball capabilities, a release script creates and commits the magic version file before to tag the commit with the release version. Then to go back into development mode, the same script can "unrelease" the code and re-delete the file, adding it back to .gitignore, after the release was made.
Are you interested in my porting the same mechanism to Gambit?
—♯ƒ • François-René ÐVB Rideau •Reflection&Cybernethics• http://fare.tunes.org A woman is not property, and husbands who think otherwise are living in a dreamworld. — Robert Heinlein, "Time Enough For Love"