diff --git a/Documentation/meson.build b/Documentation/meson.build
index f2426ccaa30c29..fca3eab1f1360a 100644
--- a/Documentation/meson.build
+++ b/Documentation/meson.build
@@ -219,6 +219,7 @@ asciidoc_conf = custom_target(
   input: meson.current_source_dir() / 'asciidoc.conf.in',
   output: 'asciidoc.conf',
   depends: [git_version_file],
+  env: version_gen_environment,
 )
 
 asciidoc_common_options = [
diff --git a/meson.build b/meson.build
index 0dccebcdf16b07..be32d60e841a30 100644
--- a/meson.build
+++ b/meson.build
@@ -201,6 +201,16 @@ if get_option('sane_tool_path') != ''
   script_environment.prepend('PATH', get_option('sane_tool_path'))
 endif
 
+# The environment used by GIT-VERSION-GEN. Note that we explicitly override
+# environment variables that might be set by the user. This is by design so
+# that we always use whatever Meson has configured instead of what is present
+# in the environment.
+version_gen_environment = script_environment
+version_gen_environment.set('GIT_BUILT_FROM_COMMIT', get_option('built_from_commit'))
+version_gen_environment.set('GIT_DATE', get_option('build_date'))
+version_gen_environment.set('GIT_USER_AGENT', get_option('user_agent'))
+version_gen_environment.set('GIT_VERSION', get_option('version'))
+
 compiler = meson.get_compiler('c')
 
 libgit_sources = [
@@ -1485,6 +1495,7 @@ git_version_file = custom_target(
   ],
   input: meson.current_source_dir() / 'GIT-VERSION-FILE.in',
   output: 'GIT-VERSION-FILE',
+  env: version_gen_environment,
   build_always_stale: true,
 )
 
@@ -1501,6 +1512,7 @@ version_def_h = custom_target(
   # Depend on GIT-VERSION-FILE so that we don't always try to rebuild this
   # target for the same commit.
   depends: [git_version_file],
+  env: version_gen_environment,
 )
 
 # Build a separate library for "version.c" so that we do not have to rebuild
@@ -1544,6 +1556,7 @@ if host_machine.system() == 'windows'
     input: meson.current_source_dir() / 'git.rc.in',
     output: 'git.rc',
     depends: [git_version_file],
+    env: version_gen_environment,
   )
 
   common_main_sources += import('windows').compile_resources(git_rc,
diff --git a/meson_options.txt b/meson_options.txt
index 32a72139bae870..8ead1349550807 100644
--- a/meson_options.txt
+++ b/meson_options.txt
@@ -16,6 +16,16 @@ option('runtime_prefix', type: 'boolean', value: false,
 option('sane_tool_path', type: 'string', value: '',
   description: 'A colon-separated list of paths to prepend to PATH if your tools in /usr/bin are broken.')
 
+# Build information compiled into Git and other parts like documentation.
+option('build_date', type: 'string', value: '',
+  description: 'Build date reported by our documentation.')
+option('built_from_commit', type: 'string', value: '',
+  description: 'Commit that Git was built from reported by git-version(1).')
+option('user_agent', type: 'string', value: '',
+  description: 'User agent reported to remote servers.')
+option('version', type: 'string', value: '',
+  description: 'Version string reported by git-version(1) and other tools.')
+
 # Features supported by Git.
 option('curl', type: 'feature', value: 'enabled',
   description: 'Build helpers used to access remotes with the HTTP transport.')