diff --git a/metrics-server/hack/Makefile.buildinfo b/metrics-server/hack/Makefile.buildinfo
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..bdcfaf0
--- /dev/null
+++ b/metrics-server/hack/Makefile.buildinfo
@@ -0,0 +1,56 @@
+# adapted from the hack scripts in kubernetes/kubernetes
+
+GIT_COMMIT:=$(shell git rev-parse "HEAD^{commit}" 2>/dev/null)
+
+# the raw git version from `git describe` -- our starting point
+GIT_VERSION_RAW:=$(shell git describe --tags --abbrev=14 "$(GIT_COMMIT)^{commit}" 2>/dev/null)
+
+# use the number of dashes in the raw version to figure out what kind of
+# version this is, and turn it into a semver-compatible version
+DASHES_IN_VERSION:=$(shell echo "$(GIT_VERSION_RAW)" | sed "s/[^-]//g")
+
+# just use the raw version by default
+GIT_VERSION:=$(GIT_VERSION_RAW)
+
+ifeq ($(DASHES_IN_VERSION), ---)
+# we have a distance to a subversion (v1.1.0-subversion-1-gCommitHash)
+GIT_VERSION:=$(shell echo "$(GIT_VERSION_RAW)" | sed "s/-\([0-9]\{1,\}\)-g\([0-9a-f]\{14\}\)$$/.\1\+\2/")
+endif
+ifeq ($(DASHES_IN_VERSION), --)
+# we have distance to base tag (v1.1.0-1-gCommitHash)
+GIT_VERSION:=$(shell echo "$(GIT_VERSION_RAW)" | sed "s/-g\([0-9a-f]\{14\}\)$$/+\1/")
+endif
+
+# figure out if we have new or changed files
+ifeq ($(shell git status --porcelain 2>/dev/null), "")
+GIT_TREE_STATE:=clean
+else
+# append the -dirty manually, since `git describe --dirty` only considers
+# changes to existing files
+GIT_TREE_STATE:=dirty
+GIT_VERSION:=$(GIT_VERSION)-dirty
+endif
+
+# construct a "shorter" version without the commit info, etc for use as container image tag, etc
+VERSION?=$(shell echo "$(GIT_VERSION)" | grep -E -o '^v[[:digit:]]+\.[[:digit:]]+\.[[:digit:]]+(-(alpha|beta)\.[[:digit:]]+)?')
+
+# construct the build date, taking into account SOURCE_DATE_EPOCH, which is
+# used for the purpose of reproducible builds
+ifdef SOURCE_DATE_EPOCH
+BUILD_DATE:=$(shell date --date=@${SOURCE_DATE_EPOCH} -u +'%Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:%SZ')
+else
+BUILD_DATE:=$(shell date -u +'%Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:%SZ')
+endif
+
+# set the build information version ldflags (but not other ldflags)
+VERSION_LDFLAGS:=-X github.com/kubernetes-incubator/metrics-server/pkg/version.gitVersion=$(GIT_VERSION) -X github.com/kubernetes-incubator/metrics-server/pkg/version.gitCommit=$(GIT_COMMIT) -X github.com/kubernetes-incubator/metrics-server/pkg/version.gitTreeState=$(GIT_TREE_STATE) -X github.com/kubernetes-incubator/metrics-server/pkg/version.buildDate=$(BUILD_DATE)
+
+export VERSION
+export VERSION_LDFLAGS
+
+# print out a summary of the current version info
+version-info:
+	@echo "Version: $(GIT_VERSION) ($(VERSION))"
+	@echo "    built from $(GIT_COMMIT) ($(GIT_TREE_STATE))"
+	@echo "    built on $(BUILD_DATE)"
+.PHONY: version-info