diff --git a/Makefile.am b/Makefile.am
index 99316916f74..a8c97097b0f 100644
--- a/Makefile.am
+++ b/Makefile.am
@@ -14,6 +14,8 @@
 # Copyright (c) 2014      Intel, Inc. All rights reserved.
 # Copyright (c) 2017-2018 Amazon.com, Inc. or its affiliates.
 #                         All Rights reserved.
+# Copyright (c) 2019      Research Organization for Information Science
+#                         and Technology (RIST).  All rights reserved.
 # $COPYRIGHT$
 #
 # Additional copyrights may follow
@@ -23,7 +25,7 @@
 
 SUBDIRS = config contrib $(MCA_PROJECT_SUBDIRS) test
 DIST_SUBDIRS = config contrib $(MCA_PROJECT_DIST_SUBDIRS) test
-EXTRA_DIST = README INSTALL VERSION Doxyfile LICENSE autogen.pl README.JAVA.txt AUTHORS
+EXTRA_DIST = README INSTALL VERSION.txt Doxyfile LICENSE autogen.pl README.JAVA.txt AUTHORS
 
 include examples/Makefile.include
 
diff --git a/VERSION b/VERSION.txt
similarity index 100%
rename from VERSION
rename to VERSION.txt
diff --git a/autogen.pl b/autogen.pl
index 9715c0ea1ce..0e516ce99d2 100755
--- a/autogen.pl
+++ b/autogen.pl
@@ -1092,7 +1092,7 @@ sub patch_autotools_output {
 
 sub in_tarball {
     my $tarball = 0;
-    open(IN, "VERSION") || my_die "Can't open VERSION";
+    open(IN, "VERSION.txt") || my_die "Can't open VERSION.txt";
     # If repo_rev is not an empty string, we are in a tarball
     while (<IN>) {
           my $line = $_;
@@ -1334,7 +1334,7 @@ sub in_tarball {
 my $ret;
 
 # Figure out if we're at the top level of the OMPI tree or not.
-if (! (-f "VERSION" && -f "configure.ac" && -f $topdir_file)) {
+if (! (-f "VERSION.txt" && -f "configure.ac" && -f $topdir_file)) {
     print("\n\nYou must run this script from the top-level directory of the Open MPI tree.\n\n");
     my_exit(1);
 }
diff --git a/config/distscript.sh b/config/distscript.sh
index 8aab98d2a38..ddab887fd16 100755
--- a/config/distscript.sh
+++ b/config/distscript.sh
@@ -11,8 +11,8 @@
 # Copyright (c) 2004-2005 The Regents of the University of California.
 #                         All rights reserved.
 # Copyright (c) 2009-2015 Cisco Systems, Inc.  All rights reserved.
-# Copyright (c) 2015      Research Organization for Information Science
-#                         and Technology (RIST). All rights reserved.
+# Copyright (c) 2015-2019 Research Organization for Information Science
+#                         and Technology (RIST).  All rights reserved.
 # Copyright (c) 2015      Los Alamos National Security, LLC. All rights
 #                         reserved.
 # $COPYRIGHT$
@@ -42,15 +42,15 @@ fi
 # or two corner cases in (but otherwise VPATH builds won't work).
 repo_rev=$OMPI_REPO_REV
 if test -d .git ; then
-    repo_rev=$(config/opal_get_version.sh VERSION --repo-rev)
+    repo_rev=$(config/opal_get_version.sh VERSION.txt --repo-rev)
 fi
 
 #
 # Update VERSION:repo_rev with the best value we have.
 #
-perl -pi -e 's/^repo_rev=.*/repo_rev='$repo_rev'/' -- "${distdir}/VERSION"
+perl -pi -e 's/^repo_rev=.*/repo_rev='$repo_rev'/' -- "${distdir}/VERSION.txt"
 # need to reset the timestamp to not annoy AM dependencies
-touch -r "${srcdir}/VERSION" "${distdir}/VERSION"
+touch -r "${srcdir}/VERSION.txt" "${distdir}/VERSION.txt"
 
-echo "*** Updated VERSION file with repo rev: $repo_rev"
+echo "*** Updated VERSION.txt file with repo rev: $repo_rev"
 echo "*** (via dist-hook / config/distscript.sh)"
diff --git a/config/opal_get_version.m4 b/config/opal_get_version.m4
index d8648a3ad60..a746c67aaf3 100644
--- a/config/opal_get_version.m4
+++ b/config/opal_get_version.m4
@@ -12,8 +12,8 @@ dnl Copyright (c) 2004-2005 The Regents of the University of California.
 dnl                         All rights reserved.
 dnl Copyright (c) 2008-2014 Cisco Systems, Inc.  All rights reserved.
 dnl Copyright (c) 2014      Intel, Inc. All rights reserved.
-dnl Copyright (c) 2014      Research Organization for Information Science
-dnl                         and Technology (RIST). All rights reserved.
+dnl Copyright (c) 2014-2019 Research Organization for Information Science
+dnl                         and Technology (RIST).  All rights reserved.
 dnl $COPYRIGHT$
 dnl
 dnl Additional copyrights may follow
@@ -69,7 +69,7 @@ m4_define([OPAL_GET_VERSION],[
         m4_ifdef([AC_MSG_CHECKING],
                  [AC_MSG_CHECKING([for repo version])])
 
-        # If repo_rev was not set in the VERSION file, then get it now
+        # If repo_rev was not set in the VERSION.txt file, then get it now
         if test "$$2_REPO_REV" = ""; then
             # See if we can find the "git" command.
             git_happy=0
diff --git a/configure.ac b/configure.ac
index c3b92d06ec7..eb8fb2ee799 100644
--- a/configure.ac
+++ b/configure.ac
@@ -20,8 +20,8 @@
 # Copyright (c) 2013      Mellanox Technologies, Inc.
 #                         All rights reserved.
 # Copyright (c) 2013-2019 Intel, Inc.  All rights reserved.
-# Copyright (c) 2014-2017 Research Organization for Information Science
-#                         and Technology (RIST). All rights reserved.
+# Copyright (c) 2014-2019 Research Organization for Information Science
+#                         and Technology (RIST).  All rights reserved.
 # Copyright (c) 2016-2017 IBM Corporation.  All rights reserved.
 # Copyright (c) 2018      Amazon.com, Inc. or its affiliates.
 #                         All Rights reserved.
@@ -52,7 +52,7 @@ AC_LANG([C])
 # was set during autogen.pl.
 
 AC_INIT([project_name_long],
-        [m4_normalize(esyscmd([config/opal_get_version.sh VERSION --tarball]))],
+        [m4_normalize(esyscmd([config/opal_get_version.sh VERSION.txt --tarball]))],
         [http://www.open-mpi.org/community/help/], [project_name_short])
 AC_PREREQ(2.60)
 AC_CONFIG_AUX_DIR(config)
@@ -109,33 +109,33 @@ AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE([foreign dist-bzip2 subdir-objects no-define 1.13.4 tar-ustar])
 # (even though they're supposed to be identical).  Shrug.
 AM_SILENT_RULES([yes])
 
-# Make configure depend on the VERSION file, since it's used in AC_INIT
-AC_SUBST([CONFIGURE_DEPENDENCIES], ['$(top_srcdir)/VERSION'])
+# Make configure depend on the VERSION.txt file, since it's used in AC_INIT
+AC_SUBST([CONFIGURE_DEPENDENCIES], ['$(top_srcdir)/VERSION.txt'])
 
 opal_show_subtitle "Checking versions"
 
 # Get the version of OMPI that we are installing
 
 m4_ifdef([project_ompi],
-         [OPAL_SAVE_VERSION([OMPI], [Open MPI], [$srcdir/VERSION],
+         [OPAL_SAVE_VERSION([OMPI], [Open MPI], [$srcdir/VERSION.txt],
                             [ompi/include/ompi/version.h])])
 
 m4_ifdef([project_orte],
          [OPAL_SAVE_VERSION([ORTE], [Open MPI Run-Time Environment],
-                            [$srcdir/VERSION],
+                            [$srcdir/VERSION.txt],
                             [orte/include/orte/version.h])])
 
 m4_ifdef([project_oshmem],
          [OPAL_SAVE_VERSION([OSHMEM], [Open SHMEM],
-                            [$srcdir/VERSION],
+                            [$srcdir/VERSION.txt],
                             [oshmem/include/oshmem/version.h])])
 
-OPAL_SAVE_VERSION([OPAL], [Open Portable Access Layer], [$srcdir/VERSION],
+OPAL_SAVE_VERSION([OPAL], [Open Portable Access Layer], [$srcdir/VERSION.txt],
                   [opal/include/opal/version.h])
 
 # Get shared library version numbers
 
-. $srcdir/VERSION
+. $srcdir/VERSION.txt
 m4_ifdef([project_ompi],
          [AC_SUBST(libmpi_so_version)
           AC_SUBST(libmpi_cxx_so_version)
diff --git a/contrib/build-mca-comps-outside-of-tree/configure.ac b/contrib/build-mca-comps-outside-of-tree/configure.ac
index af7ad22f6f5..891a9c94288 100644
--- a/contrib/build-mca-comps-outside-of-tree/configure.ac
+++ b/contrib/build-mca-comps-outside-of-tree/configure.ac
@@ -117,7 +117,7 @@ AC_ARG_WITH([openmpi-source],
              # fix, but I'm outta time today...
 
              AC_MSG_CHECKING([for Open MPI source tree])
-             AS_IF([test -d "$withval" -a -d "$withval/opal" -a -d "$withval/orte" -a -d "$withval/ompi" -a -f "$withval/VERSION" -a -f "$withval/Makefile.ompi-rules" -a -f "$withval/opal/include/opal_config.h" -a -x "$withval/config.status"],
+             AS_IF([test -d "$withval" -a -d "$withval/opal" -a -d "$withval/orte" -a -d "$withval/ompi" -a -f "$withval/VERSION.txt" -a -f "$withval/Makefile.ompi-rules" -a -f "$withval/opal/include/opal_config.h" -a -x "$withval/config.status"],
                     [AC_MSG_RESULT([$withval])],
                     [AC_MSG_RESULT([not found; double check --with-openmpi-source value])
                      AC_MSG_ERROR([Cannot continue])])
diff --git a/contrib/dist/make-html-man-pages.pl b/contrib/dist/make-html-man-pages.pl
index 58f7679638c..2c996d2647f 100755
--- a/contrib/dist/make-html-man-pages.pl
+++ b/contrib/dist/make-html-man-pages.pl
@@ -43,7 +43,7 @@ sub mkdir_p {
 }
 
 # Check that we have what we need
-if (!(-f "VERSION" && -f "ompi/include/mpi.h.in")) {
+if (!(-f "VERSION.txt" && -f "ompi/include/mpi.h.in")) {
     print "Run this script from the top-level Open MPI directory\n";
     exit(1);
 }
diff --git a/contrib/dist/make_dist_tarball b/contrib/dist/make_dist_tarball
index f009e3f7e9d..a6f07b446b3 100755
--- a/contrib/dist/make_dist_tarball
+++ b/contrib/dist/make_dist_tarball
@@ -332,7 +332,7 @@ check_gnu_version flex $FLEX_TARGET_VERSION
 # Verify that we're in a top Open MPI dir
 #
 echo "*** Checking to ensure in top-level Open MPI directory..."
-if test -f VERSION -a -f configure.ac -a -f config/opal_get_version.m4 ; then
+if test -f VERSION.txt -a -f configure.ac -a -f config/opal_get_version.m4 ; then
     happy=1
 else
     echo "Do not appear to be in an Open MPI top directory.  Abort!"
@@ -375,10 +375,10 @@ fi
 #
 # Get our repo_rev
 #
-echo "*** Removing old VERSION file..."
-rm -f VERSION
-echo "*** Restoring pristine VERSION file..."
-git checkout VERSION
+echo "*** Removing old VERSION.txt file..."
+rm -f VERSION.txt
+echo "*** Restoring pristine VERSION.txt file..."
+git checkout VERSION.txt
 echo "*** Getting git version..."
 repo_rev=`git describe --tags --always`
 echo "    Repo rev number: $repo_rev"
@@ -393,10 +393,10 @@ elif test "`echo $repo_rev | grep ' '`" != ""; then
 fi
 
 #
-# Set final values in VERSION
+# Set final values in VERSION.txt
 #
-echo "*** Removing version numbers from VERSION..."
-version_files=VERSION
+echo "*** Removing version numbers from VERSION.txt ..."
+version_files=VERSION.txt
 release_date=`date '+%b %d, %Y'`
 echo "    Release date: $release_date"
 for file in $version_files; do
@@ -446,9 +446,9 @@ if test $greekonly -eq 0; then
     make_tarball
 fi
 
-# Put the VERSION file back the way it was
-rm -f VERSION
-git checkout VERSION
+# Put the VERSION.txt file back the way it was
+rm -f VERSION.txt
+git checkout VERSION.txt
 
 echo " "
 echo "*** Start time:  $start"
diff --git a/contrib/platform/ornl/ornl_configure_self_contained b/contrib/platform/ornl/ornl_configure_self_contained
index cc33084d4b2..5ff694da326 100755
--- a/contrib/platform/ornl/ornl_configure_self_contained
+++ b/contrib/platform/ornl/ornl_configure_self_contained
@@ -36,7 +36,7 @@ fi
 SRCDIR=${SRCDIR:-..}
 COMPILER=${COMPILER:-gnu}
 INSTALL_ROOT=${INSTALL_ROOT:-/sw/xt5/ompi}
-VERSION=${VERSION:-"`${SRCDIR}/config/opal_get_version.sh ${SRCDIR}/VERSION`"}
+VERSION=${VERSION:-"`${SRCDIR}/config/opal_get_version.sh ${SRCDIR}/VERSION.txt`"}
 SVER=${SVER:-"cnl`echo "${XTOS_VERSION}" | cut -c1-3`"}
 CVER=${CVER:-"${COMPILER}`gcc --version  | awk '/gcc/{print $3}'`"}