diff --git a/.gitignore b/.gitignore
index 4d2865c..6ef20a5 100644
--- a/.gitignore
+++ b/.gitignore
@@ -1,6 +1,4 @@
 
-common.h
-
 gpu-stream-cuda
 gpu-stream-ocl
 gpu-stream-acc
diff --git a/common.h b/common.h
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..a66aa1a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/common.h
@@ -0,0 +1,9 @@
+
+// Copyright (c) 2015-16 Tom Deakin, Simon McIntosh-Smith,
+// University of Bristol HPC
+//
+// For full license terms please see the LICENSE file distributed with this
+// source code
+
+#define VERSION_STRING "devel"
+