diff --git a/CHANGELOG b/CHANGELOG
index db3e5744b0e2c31320688ae1b925ab87f05f497c..87675a056bd1a1cfbd6e58d6333d57706656d98e 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG
+++ b/CHANGELOG
@@ -62,6 +62,7 @@ v 7.10.0 (unreleased)
   - Project labels are now available over the API under the "tag_list" field (Cristian Medina) 
   - Fixed link paths for HTTP and SSH on the admin project view (Jeremy Maziarz)
   - Fix and improve help rendering (Sullivan Sénéchal)
+  - Warn when gitlab-shell version doesn't match requirement.
 
 
 v 7.9.2
diff --git a/config/initializers/5_backend.rb b/config/initializers/5_backend.rb
index 7c2e7f3900053c1b1b9b893faa0f1dc9c2c244ba..80d641d73a37ae8d385131711095ccfcb3542412 100644
--- a/config/initializers/5_backend.rb
+++ b/config/initializers/5_backend.rb
@@ -6,3 +6,10 @@ require Rails.root.join("lib", "gitlab", "backend", "shell")
 
 # GitLab shell adapter
 require Rails.root.join("lib", "gitlab", "backend", "shell_adapter")
+
+required_version = Gitlab::VersionInfo.parse(Gitlab::Shell.version_required)
+current_version = Gitlab::VersionInfo.parse(Gitlab::Shell.new.version)
+
+unless current_version.valid? && required_version <= current_version
+  warn "WARNING: This version of GitLab depends on gitlab-shell #{required_version}, but you're running #{current_version}. Please update gitlab-shell."
+end
diff --git a/lib/gitlab/backend/shell.rb b/lib/gitlab/backend/shell.rb
index aabc7f1e69a632cf5c70ba6de5ef0d420234c0ee..530f9d93de4719479e1f6c6ebb835dbf584ef51e 100644
--- a/lib/gitlab/backend/shell.rb
+++ b/lib/gitlab/backend/shell.rb
@@ -240,7 +240,7 @@ module Gitlab
       gitlab_shell_version_file = "#{gitlab_shell_path}/VERSION"
 
       if File.readable?(gitlab_shell_version_file)
-        File.read(gitlab_shell_version_file)
+        File.read(gitlab_shell_version_file).chomp
       end
     end