diff --git a/src/common/rclversion.h.in b/src/common/rclversion.h.in
deleted file mode 100644
index 4b8fe507..00000000
--- a/src/common/rclversion.h.in
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1 +0,0 @@
-static const char *rclversionstr = "@RCLVERSION@";
diff --git a/src/configure.ac b/src/configure.ac
index e43cbd45..dc12c5e1 100644
--- a/src/configure.ac
+++ b/src/configure.ac
@@ -548,7 +548,6 @@ AC_SUBST(XSLT_LINKADD)
 # All object files depend on localdefs which has the cc flags. Avoid
 # changing it unless necessary
 AC_CONFIG_FILES(Makefile)
-AC_CONFIG_FILES(common/rclversion.h)
 AC_CONFIG_FILES(python/recoll/setup.py)
 AC_CONFIG_FILES(python/pychm/setup.py)
 
diff --git a/src/rcldb/rcldb.cpp b/src/rcldb/rcldb.cpp
index 34704f76..73d75ba7 100644
--- a/src/rcldb/rcldb.cpp
+++ b/src/rcldb/rcldb.cpp
@@ -52,7 +52,6 @@ using namespace std;
 #include "rclquery_p.h"
 #include "rclvalues.h"
 #include "md5ut.h"
-#include "rclversion.h"
 #include "cancelcheck.h"
 #include "termproc.h"
 #include "expansiondbs.h"
@@ -116,7 +115,7 @@ static const string cstr_md5empty("d41d8cd98f00b204e9800998ecf8427e");
 static const int MB = 1024 * 1024;
 
 string version_string(){
-    return string("Recoll ") + string(rclversionstr) + string(" + Xapian ") +
+    return string("Recoll ") + string(PACKAGE_VERSION) + string(" + Xapian ") +
         string(Xapian::version_string());
 }