diff --git a/ChangeLog b/ChangeLog
index db1c4f149..799993b1a 100644
--- a/ChangeLog
+++ b/ChangeLog
@@ -1,3 +1,9 @@
+2009-03-19  Christian Hoff  <christian_hoff@gmx.net>
+
+	* parser/gapi2xml.pl: Introduce a "parser_version" attribute.
+	* generator/GenBase.cs: Implement a property to access the
+	attribute's value.
+
 2009-03-17  Mike Kestner  <mkestner@novell.com>
 
 	* bootstrap-generic: expose LIBTOOLIZE env variable to support
diff --git a/atk/atk-api-2.14.raw b/atk/atk-api-2.14.raw
index fc55853b5..93bc3fe05 100644
--- a/atk/atk-api-2.14.raw
+++ b/atk/atk-api-2.14.raw
@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
 <?xml version="1.0"?>
-<api>
+<api parser_version="1">
   <!--
 
         This file was automatically generated.
diff --git a/gdk/gdk-api-2.14.raw b/gdk/gdk-api-2.14.raw
index 4a54eb0c0..444212735 100644
--- a/gdk/gdk-api-2.14.raw
+++ b/gdk/gdk-api-2.14.raw
@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
 <?xml version="1.0"?>
-<api>
+<api parser_version="1">
   <!--
 
         This file was automatically generated.
diff --git a/generator/GenBase.cs b/generator/GenBase.cs
index b12831bc7..559e3e203 100644
--- a/generator/GenBase.cs
+++ b/generator/GenBase.cs
@@ -49,6 +49,13 @@ namespace GtkSharp.Generation {
 			}
 		}
 
+		public int ParserVersion {
+			get {
+				XmlElement root = elem.OwnerDocument.DocumentElement;	
+				return root.HasAttribute ("parser_version") ? int.Parse (root.GetAttribute ("parser_version")) : 1;
+			}
+		}
+
 		public bool IsInternal {
 			get {
 				if (elem.HasAttribute ("internal")) {
diff --git a/generator/Parser.cs b/generator/Parser.cs
index 61e371407..ec5f886a4 100644
--- a/generator/Parser.cs
+++ b/generator/Parser.cs
@@ -28,7 +28,8 @@ namespace GtkSharp.Generation {
 	using System.Xml;
 
 	public class Parser  {
-		
+		const int curr_parser_version = 1;
+
 		private XmlDocument Load (string filename)
 		{
 			XmlDocument doc = new XmlDocument ();
@@ -59,6 +60,20 @@ namespace GtkSharp.Generation {
 				return null;
 			}
 
+			int parser_version;
+			if (root.HasAttribute ("parser_version")) {
+				try {
+					parser_version = int.Parse (root.GetAttribute ("parser_version"));
+				} catch {
+					Console.WriteLine ("ERROR: Unable to parse parser_version attribute value \"{0}\" to a number. Input file {1} will be ignored", root.GetAttribute ("parser_version"), filename);
+					return null;
+				}
+			} else
+				parser_version = 1;
+
+			if (parser_version > curr_parser_version)
+				Console.WriteLine ("WARNING: The input file {0} was created by a parser that was released after this version of the generator. Consider updating the code generator if you experience problems.", filename);
+
 			ArrayList gens = new ArrayList ();
 
 			foreach (XmlNode child in root.ChildNodes) {
diff --git a/gio/gio-api.raw b/gio/gio-api.raw
index e2c4e01d8..da4a5e80e 100644
--- a/gio/gio-api.raw
+++ b/gio/gio-api.raw
@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
 <?xml version="1.0"?>
-<api>
+<api parser_version="1">
   <!--
 
         This file was automatically generated.
diff --git a/glade/glade-api-2.14.raw b/glade/glade-api-2.14.raw
index d0a4a39c7..7a4097656 100644
--- a/glade/glade-api-2.14.raw
+++ b/glade/glade-api-2.14.raw
@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
 <?xml version="1.0"?>
-<api>
+<api parser_version="1">
   <!--
 
         This file was automatically generated.
diff --git a/gtk/gtk-api-2.14.raw b/gtk/gtk-api-2.14.raw
index cfd8fdd18..1c967e83d 100644
--- a/gtk/gtk-api-2.14.raw
+++ b/gtk/gtk-api-2.14.raw
@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
 <?xml version="1.0"?>
-<api>
+<api parser_version="1">
   <!--
 
         This file was automatically generated.
diff --git a/pango/pango-api-2.14.raw b/pango/pango-api-2.14.raw
index 3e83701b8..b7ca69078 100644
--- a/pango/pango-api-2.14.raw
+++ b/pango/pango-api-2.14.raw
@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
 <?xml version="1.0"?>
-<api>
+<api parser_version="1">
   <!--
 
         This file was automatically generated.
diff --git a/parser/gapi2xml.pl b/parser/gapi2xml.pl
index 4181db508..b38954c33 100755
--- a/parser/gapi2xml.pl
+++ b/parser/gapi2xml.pl
@@ -22,6 +22,7 @@
 # Boston, MA 02111-1307, USA.
 ##############################################################
 
+$parser_version = 1;
 $debug=$ENV{'GAPI_DEBUG'};
 
 use XML::LibXML;
@@ -43,9 +44,13 @@ if (-e $ARGV[1]) {
 	#parse existing file and get root node.
 	$doc = XML::LibXML->new->parse_file($ARGV[1]);
 	$root = $doc->getDocumentElement();
+	if ($root->getAttribute ('parser_version') != $parser_version) {
+		die "The version of the file does not match the version of the parser";
+	}
 } else {
 	$doc = XML::LibXML::Document->new();
 	$root = $doc->createElement('api');
+	$root->setAttribute('parser_version', $parser_version);
 	$doc->setDocumentElement($root);
 	$warning_node = XML::LibXML::Comment->new ("\n\n        This file was automatically generated.\n        Please DO NOT MODIFY THIS FILE, modify .metadata files instead.\n\n");
 	$root->appendChild($warning_node);