-#define BFD_VERSION_DATE 20170911
+/* The date below is automatically updated every day by a bot. During
+ development, we include the date in the tools' version strings
+ (visible in 'ld -v' etc.) because people build binutils from a
+ variety of sources - git, tarballs, distro sources - and we want
+ something that can easily identify the source they used when they
+ report bugs. The bfd version plus date is usually good enough for
+ that purpose.
+
+ During development, this date ends up in libbfd and libopcodes
+ sonames because people naturally expect shared libraries with the
+ same soname to have compatible ABIs. We could bump the bfd version
+ on every ABI change, but that's just another thing contributors and
+ maintainers would need to remember. Instead, it's much easier for
+ all if the soname contains the date. This is not perfect but is
+ good enough.
+
+ In releases, the date is not included in either version strings or
+ sonames. */
+#define BFD_VERSION_DATE 20171011
#define BFD_VERSION @bfd_version@
#define BFD_VERSION_STRING @bfd_version_package@ @bfd_version_string@
#define REPORT_BUGS_TO @report_bugs_to@