--- a/build-aux/common.mk	Sun Jan 05 15:37:51 2014 -0200
+++ b/build-aux/common.mk	Tue Jan 07 11:36:21 2014 -0500
@@ -22,7 +22,9 @@
 DESKTOP_FILE_INSTALL = @DESKTOP_FILE_INSTALL@
 
 OCTAVE_VERSION = @OCTAVE_VERSION@
-OCTAVE_API_VERSION_NUMBER = @OCTAVE_API_VERSION_NUMBER@
+OCTAVE_MAJOR_VERSION = @OCTAVE_MAJOR_VERSION@
+OCTAVE_MINOR_VERSION = @OCTAVE_MINOR_VERSION@
+OCTAVE_PATCH_VERSION = @OCTAVE_PATCH_VERSION@
 OCTAVE_API_VERSION = @OCTAVE_API_VERSION@
 OCTAVE_RELEASE_DATE = @OCTAVE_RELEASE_DATE@
 OCTAVE_COPYRIGHT = @OCTAVE_COPYRIGHT@

--- a/configure.ac	Sun Jan 05 15:37:51 2014 -0200
+++ b/configure.ac	Tue Jan 07 11:36:21 2014 -0500
@@ -21,17 +21,41 @@
 AC_PREREQ([2.62])
 AC_INIT([GNU Octave], [3.8.0], [http://octave.org/bugs.html], [octave])
 
+dnl Note that the version number is duplicated here and in AC_INIT
+dnl because AC_INIT requires it to be static, not computed from
+dnl shell variables.
+OCTAVE_MAJOR_VERSION=3
+OCTAVE_MINOR_VERSION=8
+OCTAVE_PATCH_VERSION=0
+
 dnl PACKAGE_VERSION is set by the AC_INIT VERSION arg
 OCTAVE_VERSION="$PACKAGE_VERSION"
-OCTAVE_API_VERSION_NUMBER="49"
-OCTAVE_API_VERSION="api-v$OCTAVE_API_VERSION_NUMBER+"
+
+OCTAVE_COPYRIGHT="Copyright (C) 2013 John W. Eaton and others."
+
 OCTAVE_RELEASE_DATE="2013-12-27"
-OCTAVE_COPYRIGHT="Copyright (C) 2013 John W. Eaton and others."
+
+## The "API version" is used as a way of checking that interfaces in the
+## liboctave and libinterp libraries haven't changed in a backwardly
+## incompatible way when loading .oct files.  A better way to do that is
+## with library versioning, but not all systems support that.
+## NOTE: This macro will be removed in a future version of Octave.  If
+## you insist on checking for features using a version number, use the
+## OCTAVE_MAJOR_VERSION, OCTAVE_MINOR_VERSION, and
+## OCTAVE_PATCH_VERSION macros instead.
+## FIXME: Since we also set libtool versions for liboctave and
+## libinterp, perhaps we should be computing the "api version" from
+## those versions numbers in some way instead of setting it
+## independently here.
+OCTAVE_API_VERSION="api-v49+"
+
+AC_SUBST(OCTAVE_MAJOR_VERSION)
+AC_SUBST(OCTAVE_MINOR_VERSION)
+AC_SUBST(OCTAVE_PATCH_VERSION)
 AC_SUBST(OCTAVE_VERSION)
-AC_SUBST(OCTAVE_API_VERSION_NUMBER)
+AC_SUBST(OCTAVE_COPYRIGHT)
+AC_SUBST(OCTAVE_RELEASE_DATE)
 AC_SUBST(OCTAVE_API_VERSION)
-AC_SUBST(OCTAVE_RELEASE_DATE)
-AC_SUBST(OCTAVE_COPYRIGHT)
 
 dnl FIXME: We should auto-insert the Mercurial changeset ID into the
 dnl        AC_REVISION field whenever configure.ac is modified.

--- a/libinterp/Makefile.am	Sun Jan 05 15:37:51 2014 -0200
+++ b/libinterp/Makefile.am	Tue Jan 07 11:36:21 2014 -0500
@@ -271,9 +271,11 @@
 version.h: version.in.h Makefile
 	$(SED) < $< \
 	  -e "s|%NO_EDIT_WARNING%|DO NOT EDIT!  Generated automatically from $(<F) by Make.|" \
-	  -e "s|%OCTAVE_API_VERSION_NUMBER%|${OCTAVE_API_VERSION_NUMBER}|" \
 	  -e "s|%OCTAVE_API_VERSION%|\"${OCTAVE_API_VERSION}\"|" \
 	  -e "s|%OCTAVE_COPYRIGHT%|\"${OCTAVE_COPYRIGHT}\"|" \
+          -e "s|%OCTAVE_MAJOR_VERSION%|${OCTAVE_MAJOR_VERSION}|" \
+          -e "s|%OCTAVE_MINOR_VERSION%|${OCTAVE_MINOR_VERSION}|" \
+          -e "s|%OCTAVE_PATCH_VERSION%|${OCTAVE_PATCH_VERSION}|" \
 	  -e "s|%OCTAVE_RELEASE_DATE%|\"${OCTAVE_RELEASE_DATE}\"|" \
 	  -e "s|%OCTAVE_VERSION%|\"${OCTAVE_VERSION}\"|" > $@-t
 	mv $@-t $@

--- a/libinterp/version.in.h	Sun Jan 05 15:37:51 2014 -0200
+++ b/libinterp/version.in.h	Tue Jan 07 11:36:21 2014 -0500
@@ -26,6 +26,20 @@
 
 #define OCTAVE_VERSION %OCTAVE_VERSION%
 
+#define OCTAVE_MAJOR_VERSION %OCTAVE_MAJOR_VERSION%
+
+#define OCTAVE_MINOR_VERSION %OCTAVE_MINOR_VERSION%
+
+#define OCTAVE_PATCH_VERSION %OCTAVE_PATCH_VERSION%
+
+// The "API version" is used as a way of checking that interfaces in the
+// liboctave and libinterp libraries haven't changed in a backwardly
+// incompatible way when loading .oct files.  A better way to do that is
+// with library versioning, but not all systems support that.
+// NOTE: This macro will be removed in a future version of Octave.  If
+// you insist on checking for features using a version number, use the
+// OCTAVE_MAJOR_VERSION, OCTAVE_MINOR_VERSION, and
+// OCTAVE_PATCH_VERSION macros instead.
 #define OCTAVE_API_VERSION %OCTAVE_API_VERSION%
 
 #define OCTAVE_RELEASE_DATE %OCTAVE_RELEASE_DATE%