diff --git a/src/clientversion.h b/src/clientversion.h
index 901de1520f..34a3278e99 100644
--- a/src/clientversion.h
+++ b/src/clientversion.h
@@ -1,48 +1,57 @@
 // Copyright (c) 2009-2016 The Bitcoin Core developers
 // Copyright (c) 2017-2018 The Bitcoin developers
 // Distributed under the MIT software license, see the accompanying
 // file COPYING or http://www.opensource.org/licenses/mit-license.php.
 
 #ifndef BITCOIN_CLIENTVERSION_H
 #define BITCOIN_CLIENTVERSION_H
 
+#if defined(HAVE_CONFIG_H)
 #include <config/bitcoin-config.h>
+#endif // HAVE_CONFIG_H
 #include <config/version.h>
 
+// Check that required client information is defined
+#if !defined(CLIENT_VERSION_MAJOR) || !defined(CLIENT_VERSION_MINOR) ||        \
+    !defined(CLIENT_VERSION_REVISION) || !defined(CLIENT_VERSION_BUILD) ||     \
+    !defined(CLIENT_VERSION_IS_RELEASE) || !defined(COPYRIGHT_YEAR)
+#error Client version information missing: version is not defined by bitcoin-config.h nor defined any other way
+#endif
+
 /**
  * Converts the parameter X to a string after macro replacement on X has been
  * performed.
  * Don't merge these into one macro!
  */
 #define STRINGIZE(X) DO_STRINGIZE(X)
 #define DO_STRINGIZE(X) #X
 
 //! Copyright string used in Windows .rc files
 #define COPYRIGHT_STR                                                          \
     "2009-" STRINGIZE(COPYRIGHT_YEAR) " " COPYRIGHT_HOLDERS_FINAL
 
 /**
  * bitcoind-res.rc includes this file, but it cannot cope with real c++ code.
  * WINDRES_PREPROC is defined to indicate that its pre-processor is running.
  * Anything other than a define should be guarded below.
  */
 
 #if !defined(WINDRES_PREPROC)
 
 #include <string>
 #include <vector>
 
 static const int CLIENT_VERSION =
     1000000 * CLIENT_VERSION_MAJOR + 10000 * CLIENT_VERSION_MINOR +
     100 * CLIENT_VERSION_REVISION + 1 * CLIENT_VERSION_BUILD;
 
 extern const std::string CLIENT_NAME;
 extern const std::string CLIENT_BUILD;
 
 std::string FormatFullVersion();
 std::string FormatSubVersion(const std::string &name, int nClientVersion,
                              const std::vector<std::string> &comments);
 
 #endif // WINDRES_PREPROC
 
 #endif // BITCOIN_CLIENTVERSION_H