diff --git a/tools/bpf/bpftool/Documentation/common_options.rst b/tools/bpf/bpftool/Documentation/common_options.rst
index 908487b..4107a58 100644
--- a/tools/bpf/bpftool/Documentation/common_options.rst
+++ b/tools/bpf/bpftool/Documentation/common_options.rst
@@ -4,12 +4,13 @@
 	  Print short help message (similar to **bpftool help**).
 
 -V, --version
-	  Print version number (similar to **bpftool version**), and optional
-	  features that were included when bpftool was compiled. Optional
-	  features include linking against libbfd to provide the disassembler
-	  for JIT-ted programs (**bpftool prog dump jited**) and usage of BPF
-	  skeletons (some features like **bpftool prog profile** or showing
-	  pids associated to BPF objects may rely on it).
+	  Print bpftool's version number (similar to **bpftool version**), the
+	  number of the libbpf version in use, and optional features that were
+	  included when bpftool was compiled. Optional features include linking
+	  against libbfd to provide the disassembler for JIT-ted programs
+	  (**bpftool prog dump jited**) and usage of BPF skeletons (some
+	  features like **bpftool prog profile** or showing pids associated to
+	  BPF objects may rely on it).
 
 -j, --json
 	  Generate JSON output. For commands that cannot produce JSON, this
diff --git a/tools/bpf/bpftool/Makefile b/tools/bpf/bpftool/Makefile
index 83369f5..94b2c2f 100644
--- a/tools/bpf/bpftool/Makefile
+++ b/tools/bpf/bpftool/Makefile
@@ -39,10 +39,6 @@
 LIBBPF_INTERNAL_HDRS := $(addprefix $(LIBBPF_HDRS_DIR)/,hashmap.h nlattr.h)
 LIBBPF_BOOTSTRAP_INTERNAL_HDRS := $(addprefix $(LIBBPF_BOOTSTRAP_HDRS_DIR)/,hashmap.h)
 
-ifeq ($(BPFTOOL_VERSION),)
-BPFTOOL_VERSION := $(shell make -rR --no-print-directory -sC ../../.. kernelversion)
-endif
-
 $(LIBBPF_OUTPUT) $(BOOTSTRAP_OUTPUT) $(LIBBPF_BOOTSTRAP_OUTPUT) $(LIBBPF_HDRS_DIR) $(LIBBPF_BOOTSTRAP_HDRS_DIR):
 	$(QUIET_MKDIR)mkdir -p $@
 
@@ -83,7 +79,9 @@
 	-I$(srctree)/kernel/bpf/ \
 	-I$(srctree)/tools/include \
 	-I$(srctree)/tools/include/uapi
+ifneq ($(BPFTOOL_VERSION),)
 CFLAGS += -DBPFTOOL_VERSION='"$(BPFTOOL_VERSION)"'
+endif
 ifneq ($(EXTRA_CFLAGS),)
 CFLAGS += $(EXTRA_CFLAGS)
 endif
diff --git a/tools/bpf/bpftool/main.c b/tools/bpf/bpftool/main.c
index 490f7bd..e812277 100644
--- a/tools/bpf/bpftool/main.c
+++ b/tools/bpf/bpftool/main.c
@@ -71,6 +71,17 @@ static int do_help(int argc, char **argv)
 	return 0;
 }
 
+#ifndef BPFTOOL_VERSION
+/* bpftool's major and minor version numbers are aligned on libbpf's. There is
+ * an offset of 6 for the version number, because bpftool's version was higher
+ * than libbpf's when we adopted this scheme. The patch number remains at 0
+ * for now. Set BPFTOOL_VERSION to override.
+ */
+#define BPFTOOL_MAJOR_VERSION (LIBBPF_MAJOR_VERSION + 6)
+#define BPFTOOL_MINOR_VERSION LIBBPF_MINOR_VERSION
+#define BPFTOOL_PATCH_VERSION 0
+#endif
+
 static int do_version(int argc, char **argv)
 {
 #ifdef HAVE_LIBBFD_SUPPORT
@@ -88,7 +99,15 @@ static int do_version(int argc, char **argv)
 		jsonw_start_object(json_wtr);	/* root object */
 
 		jsonw_name(json_wtr, "version");
+#ifdef BPFTOOL_VERSION
 		jsonw_printf(json_wtr, "\"%s\"", BPFTOOL_VERSION);
+#else
+		jsonw_printf(json_wtr, "\"%d.%d.%d\"", BPFTOOL_MAJOR_VERSION,
+			     BPFTOOL_MINOR_VERSION, BPFTOOL_PATCH_VERSION);
+#endif
+		jsonw_name(json_wtr, "libbpf_version");
+		jsonw_printf(json_wtr, "\"%d.%d\"",
+			     libbpf_major_version(), libbpf_minor_version());
 
 		jsonw_name(json_wtr, "features");
 		jsonw_start_object(json_wtr);	/* features */
@@ -101,7 +120,13 @@ static int do_version(int argc, char **argv)
 	} else {
 		unsigned int nb_features = 0;
 
+#ifdef BPFTOOL_VERSION
 		printf("%s v%s\n", bin_name, BPFTOOL_VERSION);
+#else
+		printf("%s v%d.%d.%d\n", bin_name, BPFTOOL_MAJOR_VERSION,
+		       BPFTOOL_MINOR_VERSION, BPFTOOL_PATCH_VERSION);
+#endif
+		printf("using libbpf %s\n", libbpf_version_string());
 		printf("features:");
 		if (has_libbfd) {
 			printf(" libbfd");