diff --git a/meta/recipes-bsp/u-boot/u-boot.inc b/meta/recipes-bsp/u-boot/u-boot.inc
index ae53b9019c..6bbe457dfa 100644
--- a/meta/recipes-bsp/u-boot/u-boot.inc
+++ b/meta/recipes-bsp/u-boot/u-boot.inc
@@ -16,6 +16,11 @@ python () {
 		raise bb.parse.SkipPackage("because UBOOT_MACHINE is not set")
 }
 
+# Allow setting an additional version string that will be picked up by the
+# u-boot build system and appended to the u-boot version.  If the .scmversion
+# file already exists it will not be overwritten.
+UBOOT_LOCALVERSION ?= ""
+
 # Some versions of u-boot use .bin and others use .img.  By default use .bin
 # but enable individual recipes to change this value.
 UBOOT_SUFFIX ?= "bin"
@@ -40,6 +45,13 @@ do_compile () {
 	unset LDFLAGS
 	unset CFLAGS
 	unset CPPFLAGS
+
+	if [ ! -e ${B}/.scmversion -a ! -e ${S}/.scmversion ]
+	then
+		echo ${UBOOT_LOCALVERSION} > ${B}/.scmversion
+		echo ${UBOOT_LOCALVERSION} > ${S}/.scmversion
+	fi
+
 	oe_runmake ${UBOOT_MACHINE}
 	oe_runmake ${UBOOT_MAKE_TARGET}
 }