diff --git a/glib/pcre/Makefile.am b/glib/pcre/Makefile.am
index 386b7abea..5e1e98d6d 100644
--- a/glib/pcre/Makefile.am
+++ b/glib/pcre/Makefile.am
@@ -52,6 +52,7 @@ libpcre_la_SOURCES = \
 	pcre_study.c \
 	pcre_tables.c \
 	pcre_valid_utf8.c \
+	pcre_version.c \
 	pcre_xclass.c \
 	pcre.h \
 	pcre_internal.h \
diff --git a/glib/pcre/pcre_version.c b/glib/pcre/pcre_version.c
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..58a0eaa26
--- /dev/null
+++ b/glib/pcre/pcre_version.c
@@ -0,0 +1,95 @@
+/*************************************************
+*      Perl-Compatible Regular Expressions       *
+*************************************************/
+
+/* PCRE is a library of functions to support regular expressions whose syntax
+and semantics are as close as possible to those of the Perl 5 language.
+
+                       Written by Philip Hazel
+           Copyright (c) 1997-2012 University of Cambridge
+
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without
+modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions are met:
+
+    * Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright notice,
+      this list of conditions and the following disclaimer.
+
+    * Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright
+      notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the
+      documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution.
+
+    * Neither the name of the University of Cambridge nor the names of its
+      contributors may be used to endorse or promote products derived from
+      this software without specific prior written permission.
+
+THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE COPYRIGHT HOLDERS AND CONTRIBUTORS "AS IS"
+AND ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE
+IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE
+ARE DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE COPYRIGHT OWNER OR CONTRIBUTORS BE
+LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR
+CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF
+SUBSTITUTE GOODS OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS
+INTERRUPTION) HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN
+CONTRACT, STRICT LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE)
+ARISING IN ANY WAY OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE
+POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGE.
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
+*/
+
+
+/* This module contains the external function pcre_version(), which returns a
+string that identifies the PCRE version that is in use. */
+
+
+#ifdef HAVE_CONFIG_H
+#include "config.h"
+#endif
+
+#include "pcre_internal.h"
+
+
+/*************************************************
+*          Return version string                 *
+*************************************************/
+
+/* These macros are the standard way of turning unquoted text into C strings.
+They allow macros like PCRE_MAJOR to be defined without quotes, which is
+convenient for user programs that want to test its value. */
+
+#define STRING(a)  # a
+#define XSTRING(s) STRING(s)
+
+/* A problem turned up with PCRE_PRERELEASE, which is defined empty for
+production releases. Originally, it was used naively in this code:
+
+  return XSTRING(PCRE_MAJOR)
+         "." XSTRING(PCRE_MINOR)
+             XSTRING(PCRE_PRERELEASE)
+         " " XSTRING(PCRE_DATE);
+
+However, when PCRE_PRERELEASE is empty, this leads to an attempted expansion of
+STRING(). The C standard states: "If (before argument substitution) any
+argument consists of no preprocessing tokens, the behavior is undefined." It
+turns out the gcc treats this case as a single empty string - which is what we
+really want - but Visual C grumbles about the lack of an argument for the
+macro. Unfortunately, both are within their rights. To cope with both ways of
+handling this, I had resort to some messy hackery that does a test at run time.
+I could find no way of detecting that a macro is defined as an empty string at
+pre-processor time. This hack uses a standard trick for avoiding calling
+the STRING macro with an empty argument when doing the test. */
+
+#ifdef COMPILE_PCRE8
+PCRE_EXP_DEFN const char * PCRE_CALL_CONVENTION
+pcre_version(void)
+#else
+PCRE_EXP_DEFN const char * PCRE_CALL_CONVENTION
+pcre16_version(void)
+#endif
+{
+return (XSTRING(Z PCRE_PRERELEASE)[1] == 0)?
+  XSTRING(PCRE_MAJOR.PCRE_MINOR PCRE_DATE) :
+  XSTRING(PCRE_MAJOR.PCRE_MINOR) XSTRING(PCRE_PRERELEASE PCRE_DATE);
+}
+
+/* End of pcre_version.c */
diff --git a/glib/tests/Makefile.am b/glib/tests/Makefile.am
index 57c00b05f..ff3cba7e4 100644
--- a/glib/tests/Makefile.am
+++ b/glib/tests/Makefile.am
@@ -4,7 +4,7 @@ if USE_SYSTEM_PCRE
 pcre_lib = $(PCRE_LIBS)
 pcre_inc = $(PCRE_CFLAGS)
 else
-pcre_lib = pcre/libpcre.la
+pcre_lib = $(top_builddir)/glib/pcre/libpcre.la
 pcre_inc =
 endif