diff --git a/configure.ac b/configure.ac
index 25a27a71b..b5b638af6 100644
--- a/configure.ac
+++ b/configure.ac
@@ -2139,6 +2139,7 @@ AC_TRY_COMPILE([
 
 AC_DEFINE_DIR(PROJECTROOT, prefix, [Overall prefix])
 
+AC_SUBST([RELEASE_DATE])
 BUILD_DATE="`date +'%Y%m%d'`"
 AC_SUBST([BUILD_DATE])
 BUILD_TIME="`date +'1%H%M%S'`"
@@ -2162,6 +2163,7 @@ dbe/Makefile
 dix/Makefile
 doc/Makefile
 doc/xml/Makefile
+doc/xml/xserver.ent
 fb/Makefile
 record/Makefile
 config/Makefile
diff --git a/doc/xml/.gitignore b/doc/xml/.gitignore
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..496173835
--- /dev/null
+++ b/doc/xml/.gitignore
@@ -0,0 +1,5 @@
+#		Add & Override for this directory and its subdirectories
+xserver.ent
+Xserver-spec.html
+Xserver-spec.pdf
+Xserver-spec.txt
diff --git a/doc/xml/Xserver-spec.xml b/doc/xml/Xserver-spec.xml
index 8691f1884..1bea20fd4 100644
--- a/doc/xml/Xserver-spec.xml
+++ b/doc/xml/Xserver-spec.xml
@@ -1,6 +1,7 @@
 <?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1"?>
 <!DOCTYPE article PUBLIC "-//OASIS//DTD DocBook XML V4.3//EN"
  "http://www.oasis-open.org/docbook/xml/4.3/docbookx.dtd" [
+ <!ENTITY % defs SYSTEM "/xserver/doc/xml/xserver.ent"> %defs;
 ]>
 
 <article>
@@ -38,7 +39,8 @@
       <affiliation><orgname>X.org Foundation and Hewlett Packard</orgname></affiliation>
     </author>
     <publisher><publishername>The X.Org Foundation</publishername></publisher>
-    <pubdate>2004</pubdate>
+    <pubdate>&xserver.reldate;</pubdate>
+    <releaseinfo>X server version &xserver.version;</releaseinfo>
     <title>Definition of the Porting Layer for the X v11 Sample Server</title>
     <titleabbrev>X Porting Layer</titleabbrev>
     <revhistory>
diff --git a/doc/xml/xmlrules.in b/doc/xml/xmlrules.in
index a4d43f976..1be369112 100644
--- a/doc/xml/xmlrules.in
+++ b/doc/xml/xmlrules.in
@@ -36,24 +36,33 @@ BUILT_DOC_FILES =
 
 SUFFIXES = .xml .txt .html .pdf
 
+XML_ENT_DIR = $(abs_top_builddir)/doc/xml
+XMLTO_FLAGS = --searchpath $(XML_ENT_DIR)
+
 if HAVE_XMLTO
 BUILT_DOC_FILES += $(TXT_FILES)
 .xml.txt:
 	@rm -f $@
-	$(AM_V_GEN)$(XMLTO) txt $<
+	$(AM_V_GEN)$(XMLTO) $(XMLTO_FLAGS) txt $<
 
 BUILT_DOC_FILES += $(HTML_FILES)
 .xml.html:
 	@rm -f $@
-	$(AM_V_GEN)$(XMLTO) xhtml-nochunks $<
+	$(AM_V_GEN)$(XMLTO) $(XMLTO_FLAGS) xhtml-nochunks $<
 
 if HAVE_FOP
 BUILT_DOC_FILES += $(PDF_FILES)
 .xml.pdf:
 	@rm -f $@
-	$(AM_V_GEN)$(XMLTO) --with-fop pdf $<
+	$(AM_V_GEN)$(XMLTO) $(XMLTO_FLAGS) --with-fop pdf $<
 endif
 
 endif
 
 CLEAN_DOC_FILES = $(TXT_FILES) $(HTML_FILES) $(PDF_FILES)
+
+# All the files we build depend on the entities
+$(BUILT_DOC_FILES): $(XML_ENT_DIR)/xserver.ent
+
+$(XML_ENT_DIR)/xserver.ent:
+	(cd $(XML_ENT_DIR) && $(MAKE) $(AM_MAKEFLAGS) $(@F))
diff --git a/doc/xml/xserver.ent.in b/doc/xml/xserver.ent.in
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..5cb4e23d3
--- /dev/null
+++ b/doc/xml/xserver.ent.in
@@ -0,0 +1,3 @@
+<!-- shared -*-xml-*- entity definitions for the X server documentation -->
+<!ENTITY xserver.version "@PACKAGE_VERSION@">
+<!ENTITY xserver.reldate "@RELEASE_DATE@">
diff --git a/hw/xfree86/doc/sgml/DESIGN.xml b/hw/xfree86/doc/sgml/DESIGN.xml
index 6abfa604c..200990cb5 100644
--- a/hw/xfree86/doc/sgml/DESIGN.xml
+++ b/hw/xfree86/doc/sgml/DESIGN.xml
@@ -1,6 +1,7 @@
 <?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1"?>
 <!DOCTYPE article PUBLIC "-//OASIS//DTD DocBook XML V4.3//EN"
  "http://www.oasis-open.org/docbook/xml/4.3/docbookx.dtd" [
+ <!ENTITY % defs SYSTEM "/xserver/doc/xml/xserver.ent"> %defs;
  <!-- config file keyword markup -->
  <!-- specific config file keywords -->
  <!ENTITY k.device "<emphasis>Device</emphasis>">
@@ -29,7 +30,8 @@
       </othercredit>
     </authorgroup>
 
-    <pubdate>19 December 2003</pubdate>
+    <pubdate>&xserver.reldate;</pubdate>
+    <releaseinfo>Xorg server version &xserver.version;</releaseinfo>
 
   </articleinfo>