diff --git a/jetty-start/pom.xml b/jetty-start/pom.xml
index 99999d1cd4d0..520843da97ff 100644
--- a/jetty-start/pom.xml
+++ b/jetty-start/pom.xml
@@ -13,7 +13,30 @@
     <spotbugs.onlyAnalyze>org.eclipse.jetty.start.*</spotbugs.onlyAnalyze>
   </properties>
   <build>
+    <resources>
+      <resource>
+        <directory>src/main/resources</directory>
+        <filtering>true</filtering>
+      </resource>
+    </resources>
     <plugins>
+      <plugin>
+        <groupId>org.codehaus.mojo</groupId>
+        <artifactId>buildnumber-maven-plugin</artifactId>
+        <executions>
+          <execution>
+            <id>create-buildnumber</id>
+            <goals>
+              <goal>create</goal>
+            </goals>
+            <configuration>
+              <doCheck>false</doCheck>
+              <doUpdate>false</doUpdate>
+              <revisionOnScmFailure>${nonCanonicalRevision}</revisionOnScmFailure>
+            </configuration>
+          </execution>
+        </executions>
+      </plugin>
       <plugin>
         <artifactId>maven-jar-plugin</artifactId>
         <configuration>
diff --git a/jetty-start/src/main/java/org/eclipse/jetty/start/Props.java b/jetty-start/src/main/java/org/eclipse/jetty/start/Props.java
index dcd70002048a..a88e8452b328 100644
--- a/jetty-start/src/main/java/org/eclipse/jetty/start/Props.java
+++ b/jetty-start/src/main/java/org/eclipse/jetty/start/Props.java
@@ -19,7 +19,9 @@
 package org.eclipse.jetty.start;
 
 import java.io.IOException;
+import java.io.InputStream;
 import java.io.OutputStream;
+import java.net.URL;
 import java.util.ArrayList;
 import java.util.Iterator;
 import java.util.List;
@@ -365,4 +367,32 @@ public String toString()
     {
         return props.toString();
     }
+
+    public static Props load(ClassLoader classLoader, String resourceName)
+    {
+        StartLog.debug("Looking for classloader resource: %s", resourceName);
+        return load(classLoader.getResource(resourceName));
+    }
+
+    public static Props load(URL url)
+    {
+        Props props = new Props();
+        if (url != null)
+        {
+            StartLog.debug("Loading Props: %s", url.toExternalForm());
+            try (InputStream in = url.openStream())
+            {
+                Properties properties = new Properties();
+                properties.load(in);
+                String urlStr = url.toExternalForm();
+                properties.stringPropertyNames().forEach((name) ->
+                    props.setProperty(name, properties.getProperty(name), urlStr));
+            }
+            catch (IOException x)
+            {
+                StartLog.debug(x);
+            }
+        }
+        return props;
+    }
 }
diff --git a/jetty-start/src/main/java/org/eclipse/jetty/start/StartArgs.java b/jetty-start/src/main/java/org/eclipse/jetty/start/StartArgs.java
index f1040ec8b462..9aa254ea5628 100644
--- a/jetty-start/src/main/java/org/eclipse/jetty/start/StartArgs.java
+++ b/jetty-start/src/main/java/org/eclipse/jetty/start/StartArgs.java
@@ -21,9 +21,7 @@
 import java.io.File;
 import java.io.FileInputStream;
 import java.io.IOException;
-import java.io.InputStream;
 import java.io.OutputStream;
-import java.net.URL;
 import java.nio.file.Files;
 import java.nio.file.Path;
 import java.nio.file.Paths;
@@ -40,6 +38,7 @@
 import java.util.Properties;
 import java.util.Set;
 import java.util.StringTokenizer;
+import java.util.jar.Attributes;
 import java.util.jar.Manifest;
 import java.util.stream.Collectors;
 import java.util.stream.StreamSupport;
@@ -66,61 +65,51 @@ public class StartArgs
     public static final Set<String> ARG_PARTS = Collections.unmodifiableSet(new HashSet<>(Arrays.asList(
         "args")));
 
+    private static final String JETTY_VERSION_KEY = "jetty.version";
+    private static final String JETTY_TAG_NAME_KEY = "jetty.tag.version";
+    private static final String JETTY_BUILDNUM_KEY = "jetty.build";
+
     static
     {
         // Use command line versions
-        String ver = System.getProperty("jetty.version", null);
-        String tag = System.getProperty("jetty.tag.version", "master");
+        String ver = System.getProperty(JETTY_VERSION_KEY);
+        String tag = System.getProperty(JETTY_TAG_NAME_KEY);
 
         // Use META-INF/MANIFEST.MF versions
         if (ver == null)
         {
             ver = ManifestUtils.getManifest(StartArgs.class)
                 .map(Manifest::getMainAttributes)
-                .filter(attributes -> "Eclipse Jetty Project".equals(attributes.getValue("Implementation-Vendor")))
-                .map(attributes -> attributes.getValue("Implementation-Version"))
+                .filter(attributes -> "Eclipse Jetty Project".equals(attributes.getValue(Attributes.Name.IMPLEMENTATION_VENDOR)))
+                .map(attributes -> attributes.getValue(Attributes.Name.IMPLEMENTATION_VERSION))
                 .orElse(null);
         }
 
-        // Use jetty-version.properties values
-        if (ver == null)
+        ClassLoader classLoader = Thread.currentThread().getContextClassLoader();
+        // use old jetty-version.properties (as seen within various linux distro repackaging of Jetty)
+        Props jettyVerProps = Props.load(classLoader, "jetty-version.properties");
+        // use build-time properties (included in start.jar) to pull version and buildNumber
+        Props buildProps = Props.load(classLoader, "org/eclipse/jetty/start/build.properties");
+
+        String sha = buildProps.getString("buildNumber", System.getProperty(JETTY_BUILDNUM_KEY));
+        if (Utils.isNotBlank(sha))
         {
-            URL url = Thread.currentThread().getContextClassLoader().getResource("jetty-version.properties");
-            if (url != null)
-            {
-                try (InputStream in = url.openStream())
-                {
-                    Properties props = new Properties();
-                    props.load(in);
-                    ver = props.getProperty("jetty.version");
-                }
-                catch (IOException x)
-                {
-                    StartLog.debug(x);
-                }
-            }
+            System.setProperty(JETTY_BUILDNUM_KEY, sha);
         }
 
-        // Default values
-        if (ver == null)
+        if (Utils.isBlank(ver))
         {
-            ver = "0.0";
-            if (tag == null)
-                tag = "master";
+            ver = jettyVerProps.getString("version", buildProps.getString("version", "0.0"));
         }
-        else
+
+        if (Utils.isBlank(tag))
         {
-            if (tag == null)
-                tag = "jetty-" + ver;
+            tag = jettyVerProps.getString("tag", buildProps.getString("tag", "jetty-" + ver));
         }
 
-        // Set Tag Defaults
-        if (tag.contains("-SNAPSHOT"))
-            tag = "master";
-
         VERSION = ver;
-        System.setProperty("jetty.version", VERSION);
-        System.setProperty("jetty.tag.version", tag);
+        System.setProperty(JETTY_VERSION_KEY, VERSION);
+        System.setProperty(JETTY_TAG_NAME_KEY, tag);
     }
 
     private static final String MAIN_CLASS = "org.eclipse.jetty.xml.XmlConfiguration";
@@ -323,8 +312,9 @@ public void dumpEnvironment()
         System.out.println();
         System.out.println("Jetty Environment:");
         System.out.println("-----------------");
-        dumpProperty("jetty.version");
-        dumpProperty("jetty.tag.version");
+        dumpProperty(JETTY_VERSION_KEY);
+        dumpProperty(JETTY_TAG_NAME_KEY);
+        dumpProperty(JETTY_BUILDNUM_KEY);
         dumpProperty("jetty.home");
         dumpProperty("jetty.base");
 
diff --git a/jetty-start/src/main/resources/org/eclipse/jetty/start/build.properties b/jetty-start/src/main/resources/org/eclipse/jetty/start/build.properties
new file mode 100644
index 000000000000..c9d20227f6c1
--- /dev/null
+++ b/jetty-start/src/main/resources/org/eclipse/jetty/start/build.properties
@@ -0,0 +1,4 @@
+buildNumber=${buildNumber}
+timestamp=${timestamp}
+version=${project.version}
+scmUrl=${project.scm.connection}
\ No newline at end of file