diff --git a/src/common/request.h b/src/common/request.h
--- a/src/common/request.h
+++ b/src/common/request.h
@@ -20,6 +20,8 @@
 #ifndef _DISTREN_REQUEST_H
 #define _DISTREN_REQUEST_H
 
+#include "common/protocol.h"
+
 /**
  * @file functions to initialize various requests that the server and
  * client may both use.
@@ -32,6 +34,26 @@
 int distren_request_free_with_data(struct distren_request *req, void *data);
 
 /**
+ * Initialize a VERSION request.
+ *
+ * @param req pointer to where the poitner to the new req should be stored..
+ * @param data pointer to where the newly allocated data's address should go.
+ * @param servertype the ORing of different DISTREN_SERVERTYPE_* constants.
+ * @param package_string the PACKAGE_STRING constant.
+ */
+int distren_request_version(struct distren_request **req, void **data, uint32_t servertype, const char *package_string);
+
+/**
+ * Parses a DISTREN_REQUEST_VERSION packet.
+ *
+ * @param req the request to parse.
+ * @param data the request's data.
+ * @param version where the result should be stored.
+ * @return 0 on success, 1 if the packet is invalid (if the length of package_version is longer than 32-bytes, for example).
+ */
+int distren_request_parse_version(struct distren_request *req, void *data, struct distren_request_version *version);
+
+/**
  * Initialize a PING or PONG request.
  *
  * @param data a place to allocate storage for the data associated with this request