diff --git a/Makefile.in b/Makefile.in
index 8beb314d3..73e876f4d 100644
--- a/Makefile.in
+++ b/Makefile.in
@@ -1,5 +1,6 @@
 # Extract the version string from nmap.h.
 export NMAP_VERSION := $(shell grep '^\#[ \t]*define[ \t]\+NMAP_VERSION' nmap.h | sed -e 's/.*"\(.*\)".*/\1/' -e 'q')
+export NMAP_UPDATE_CHANNEL := $(shell grep '^\#[ \t]*define[ \t]\+NMAP_UPDATE_CHANNEL' nmap.h | sed -e 's/.*"\(.*\)".*/\1/' -e 'q')
 NMAP_NAME= Nmap
 NMAP_URL= http://nmap.org
 NMAP_PLATFORM=@host@
@@ -151,6 +152,7 @@ lua_build: $(LIBLUADIR)/Makefile
 liblinear_build: $(LIBLINEARDIR)/Makefile
 	@echo Compiling liblinear; cd $(LIBLINEARDIR) && $(MAKE) liblinear.a CC="$(CC)" CXX="$(CXX)" CFLAGS="$(CFLAGS)"
 
+build-nmap-update: nmap-update/default_channel.h
 
 #$(LIBPCAPDIR)/Makefile:
 #	@echo Configuring libpcap; cd $(LIBPCAPDIR); ./configure
@@ -285,6 +287,10 @@ $(NPINGDIR)/nping.h: nmap.h
 $(ZENMAPDIR)/zenmapCore/Version.py $(ZENMAPDIR)/share/zenmap/config/zenmap_version: nmap.h
 	cd $(ZENMAPDIR) && $(PYTHON) install_scripts/utils/version_update.py "$(NMAP_VERSION)"
 
+nmap-update/default_channel.h: nmap.h
+	sed -e 's/^#[ \t]*define[ \t]\+DEFAULT_CHANNEL[ \t]\+\(".*"\)/#define DEFAULT_CHANNEL "$(NMAP_UPDATE_CHANNEL)"/' $@ > $@.tmp
+	mv -f $@.tmp $@
+
 # By default distutils rewrites installed scripts to hardcode the
 # location of the Python interpreter they were built with (something
 # like #!/usr/bin/python2.4). This is the wrong thing to do when
diff --git a/nmap-update/default_channel.h b/nmap-update/default_channel.h
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..89632f001
--- /dev/null
+++ b/nmap-update/default_channel.h
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+#define DEFAULT_CHANNEL "5.61TEST2"
diff --git a/nmap-update/nmap-update.c b/nmap-update/nmap-update.c
index 9112ead8a..5aeab1bf2 100644
--- a/nmap-update/nmap-update.c
+++ b/nmap-update/nmap-update.c
@@ -37,7 +37,7 @@
 #include <svn_types.h>
 #endif
 
-#define NMAP_VERSION "5.61TEST2"
+#include "default_channel.h"
 
 #ifdef WIN32
 #define PATHSEP "\\"
@@ -48,7 +48,7 @@
 static const char *SVN_REPO = "https://svn.nmap.org";
 static const char *SVN_DIR = "/updates";
 
-static const char *DEFAULT_CHANNELS[] = { NMAP_VERSION };
+static const char *DEFAULT_CHANNELS[] = { DEFAULT_CHANNEL };
 
 
 /* Internal error handling. */
@@ -658,7 +658,7 @@ static void usage(FILE *fp)
 	fprintf(fp, "\
 Usage: %s [-d INSTALL_DIR] [CHANNEL...]\n\
 Updates system-independent Nmap files. By default the new files are installed to\n\
-%s. Each CHANNEL is a version number like \"" NMAP_VERSION "\".\n\
+%s. Each CHANNEL is a version number like \"" DEFAULT_CHANNEL "\".\n\
 \n\
   -d DIR      install files to DIR (default %s).\n\
   -h, --help  show this help.\n\