diff --git a/bitbake/bin/bitbake b/bitbake/bin/bitbake
index 3e1ca6286c..88ac8c34ca 100755
--- a/bitbake/bin/bitbake
+++ b/bitbake/bin/bitbake
@@ -35,7 +35,11 @@ except RuntimeError as exc:
 from bb import cookerdata
 from bb.main import bitbake_main, BitBakeConfigParameters, BBMainException
 
+__version__ = "1.27.0"
+
 if __name__ == "__main__":
+    if __version__ != bb.__version__:
+        sys.exit("Bitbake core version and program version mismatch!")
     try:
         ret = bitbake_main(BitBakeConfigParameters(sys.argv),
                            cookerdata.CookerConfiguration())
diff --git a/bitbake/lib/bb/main.py b/bitbake/lib/bb/main.py
index 2019d5014b..49dc8d5b59 100755
--- a/bitbake/lib/bb/main.py
+++ b/bitbake/lib/bb/main.py
@@ -36,7 +36,6 @@ from bb import ui
 from bb import server
 from bb import cookerdata
 
-__version__ = "1.27.0"
 logger = logging.getLogger("BitBake")
 
 class BBMainException(Exception):
@@ -83,7 +82,7 @@ class BitBakeConfigParameters(cookerdata.ConfigParameters):
 
     def parseCommandLine(self, argv=sys.argv):
         parser = optparse.OptionParser(
-            version = "BitBake Build Tool Core version %s, %%prog version %s" % (bb.__version__, __version__),
+            version = "BitBake Build Tool Core version %s" % bb.__version__,
             usage = """%prog [options] [recipename/target ...]
 
     Executes the specified task (default is 'build') for a given set of target recipes (.bb files).