diff --git a/CMakeLists.txt b/CMakeLists.txt
index 1b04af27..90b2efa3 100644
--- a/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -63,6 +63,10 @@ system_info ()
 include (UseVCSInfo)
 vcs_info ()
 
+# print toolchain information to identify compilers with potential bugs
+include (UseCompVer)
+compiler_info ()
+
 # include special
 if (CMAKE_VERSION VERSION_LESS "2.8.7")
 	message (STATUS "Enabling backward compatibility modules for CMake ${CMAKE_VERSION}")
diff --git a/cmake/Modules/UseCompVer.cmake b/cmake/Modules/UseCompVer.cmake
index 48e21638..461898ef 100644
--- a/cmake/Modules/UseCompVer.cmake
+++ b/cmake/Modules/UseCompVer.cmake
@@ -13,3 +13,35 @@ function (get_gcc_version language ver_name)
 	set (${ver_name} "" PARENT_SCOPE)
   endif (CMAKE_${language}_COMPILER_ID STREQUAL GNU)
 endfunction (get_gcc_version ver_name)
+
+# less reliable, but includes the patch number
+function (get_gcc_patch language ver_name)
+  if(CMAKE_${language}_COMPILER_ID STREQUAL GNU)
+	# exec_program is deprecated, but execute_process does't work :-(
+	exec_program (${CMAKE_${language}_COMPILER}
+	  ARGS ${CMAKE_${language}_COMPILER_ARG1} --version
+	  OUTPUT_VARIABLE _version
+	  )
+	# split multi-line string into list
+	if (WIN32)
+	  string (REPLACE "\r\n" ";" _version "${_version}")
+	else (WIN32)
+	  string (REPLACE "\n" ";" _version "${_version}")
+	endif (WIN32)
+	# only keep first line
+	list (GET _version 0 _version)
+	# extract version number from it (this is the fragile part)
+	string (REGEX REPLACE "^[^\\(]+(\\([^\\)]*\\))?[\ \t]*([0-9]+\\.[0-9]+\\.[0-9]+)(.*\\(.*\\))?" "\\2" _version "${_version}")
+	# return this to the caller
+	set (${ver_name} ${_version} PARENT_SCOPE)
+  else (CMAKE_${language}_COMPILER_ID STREQUAL GNU)
+	set (${ver_name} "" PARENT_SCOPE)
+  endif (CMAKE_${language}_COMPILER_ID STREQUAL GNU)
+endfunction (get_gcc_patch language ver_name)
+
+function (compiler_info)
+  if (CMAKE_COMPILER_IS_GNUCXX)
+	get_gcc_patch (CXX version)
+	message (STATUS "GNU C++ compiler version: ${version}")
+  endif (CMAKE_COMPILER_IS_GNUCXX)
+endfunction (compiler_info)