diff --git a/lib/coffee-script/browser.js b/lib/coffee-script/browser.js
index ec2e4793..cb5e501d 100644
--- a/lib/coffee-script/browser.js
+++ b/lib/coffee-script/browser.js
@@ -1,3 +1,4 @@
+// Generated by CoffeeScript 1.2.1-pre
 (function() {
   var CoffeeScript, runScripts;
 
diff --git a/lib/coffee-script/cake.js b/lib/coffee-script/cake.js
index 986d5cc6..e7cb2a1d 100644
--- a/lib/coffee-script/cake.js
+++ b/lib/coffee-script/cake.js
@@ -1,3 +1,4 @@
+// Generated by CoffeeScript 1.2.1-pre
 (function() {
   var CoffeeScript, cakefileDirectory, fatalError, fs, helpers, missingTask, oparse, options, optparse, path, printTasks, switches, tasks;
 
@@ -65,8 +66,9 @@
   };
 
   printTasks = function() {
-    var cakefilePath, desc, name, spaces, task;
-    cakefilePath = path.join(path.relative(__originalDirname, process.cwd()), 'Cakefile');
+    var cakefilePath, desc, name, relative, spaces, task;
+    relative = path.relative || path.resolve;
+    cakefilePath = path.join(relative(__originalDirname, process.cwd()), 'Cakefile');
     console.log("" + cakefilePath + " defines the following tasks:\n");
     for (name in tasks) {
       task = tasks[name];
diff --git a/lib/coffee-script/coffee-script.js b/lib/coffee-script/coffee-script.js
index 18866f6a..df1a8512 100644
--- a/lib/coffee-script/coffee-script.js
+++ b/lib/coffee-script/coffee-script.js
@@ -1,3 +1,4 @@
+// Generated by CoffeeScript 1.2.1-pre
 (function() {
   var Lexer, RESERVED, compile, fs, lexer, parser, path, vm, _ref,
     __hasProp = Object.prototype.hasOwnProperty;
@@ -33,17 +34,20 @@
   exports.helpers = require('./helpers');
 
   exports.compile = compile = function(code, options) {
-    var merge;
+    var header, js, merge;
     if (options == null) options = {};
     merge = exports.helpers.merge;
     try {
-      return (parser.parse(lexer.tokenize(code))).compile(merge({}, options));
+      js = (parser.parse(lexer.tokenize(code))).compile(options);
+      if (!options.header) return js;
     } catch (err) {
       if (options.filename) {
         err.message = "In " + options.filename + ", " + err.message;
       }
       throw err;
     }
+    header = "Generated by CoffeeScript " + this.VERSION;
+    return "// " + header + "\n" + js;
   };
 
   exports.tokens = function(code, options) {
diff --git a/lib/coffee-script/command.js b/lib/coffee-script/command.js
index 2afa7b6f..b7dc1b98 100644
--- a/lib/coffee-script/command.js
+++ b/lib/coffee-script/command.js
@@ -1,3 +1,4 @@
+// Generated by CoffeeScript 1.2.1-pre
 (function() {
   var BANNER, CoffeeScript, EventEmitter, SWITCHES, compileJoin, compileOptions, compilePath, compileScript, compileStdio, exec, forkNode, fs, helpers, joinTimeout, lint, loadRequires, notSources, optionParser, optparse, opts, outputPath, parseOptions, path, printLine, printTokens, printWarn, removeSource, sourceCode, sources, spawn, timeLog, unwatchDir, usage, version, wait, watch, watchDir, watchers, writeJs, _ref;
 
@@ -406,7 +407,8 @@
   compileOptions = function(filename) {
     return {
       filename: filename,
-      bare: opts.bare
+      bare: opts.bare,
+      header: opts.compile
     };
   };
 
diff --git a/lib/coffee-script/grammar.js b/lib/coffee-script/grammar.js
index 5b7a164a..15c58783 100644
--- a/lib/coffee-script/grammar.js
+++ b/lib/coffee-script/grammar.js
@@ -1,3 +1,4 @@
+// Generated by CoffeeScript 1.2.1-pre
 (function() {
   var Parser, alt, alternatives, grammar, name, o, operators, token, tokens, unwrap;
 
diff --git a/lib/coffee-script/helpers.js b/lib/coffee-script/helpers.js
index 038f7810..7e6c85d6 100644
--- a/lib/coffee-script/helpers.js
+++ b/lib/coffee-script/helpers.js
@@ -1,3 +1,4 @@
+// Generated by CoffeeScript 1.2.1-pre
 (function() {
   var extend, flatten;
 
diff --git a/lib/coffee-script/index.js b/lib/coffee-script/index.js
index 5e6eba94..9f13919f 100644
--- a/lib/coffee-script/index.js
+++ b/lib/coffee-script/index.js
@@ -1,3 +1,4 @@
+// Generated by CoffeeScript 1.2.1-pre
 (function() {
   var key, val, _ref;
 
diff --git a/lib/coffee-script/lexer.js b/lib/coffee-script/lexer.js
index d5e68c23..d55fc7dc 100644
--- a/lib/coffee-script/lexer.js
+++ b/lib/coffee-script/lexer.js
@@ -1,3 +1,4 @@
+// Generated by CoffeeScript 1.2.1-pre
 (function() {
   var BOOL, CALLABLE, CODE, COFFEE_ALIASES, COFFEE_ALIAS_MAP, COFFEE_KEYWORDS, COMMENT, COMPARE, COMPOUND_ASSIGN, HEREDOC, HEREDOC_ILLEGAL, HEREDOC_INDENT, HEREGEX, HEREGEX_OMIT, IDENTIFIER, INDEXABLE, INVERSES, JSTOKEN, JS_FORBIDDEN, JS_KEYWORDS, LINE_BREAK, LINE_CONTINUER, LOGIC, Lexer, MATH, MULTILINER, MULTI_DENT, NOT_REGEX, NOT_SPACED_REGEX, NUMBER, OPERATOR, REGEX, RELATION, RESERVED, Rewriter, SHIFT, SIMPLESTR, TRAILING_SPACES, UNARY, WHITESPACE, compact, count, key, last, starts, _ref, _ref2,
     __indexOf = Array.prototype.indexOf || function(item) { for (var i = 0, l = this.length; i < l; i++) { if (i in this && this[i] === item) return i; } return -1; };
diff --git a/lib/coffee-script/nodes.js b/lib/coffee-script/nodes.js
index bfb242d9..247fee68 100644
--- a/lib/coffee-script/nodes.js
+++ b/lib/coffee-script/nodes.js
@@ -1,3 +1,4 @@
+// Generated by CoffeeScript 1.2.1-pre
 (function() {
   var Access, Arr, Assign, Base, Block, Call, Class, Closure, Code, Comment, Existence, Extends, For, IDENTIFIER, IDENTIFIER_STR, IS_STRING, If, In, Index, LEVEL_ACCESS, LEVEL_COND, LEVEL_LIST, LEVEL_OP, LEVEL_PAREN, LEVEL_TOP, Literal, METHOD_DEF, NEGATE, NO, Obj, Op, Param, Parens, RESERVED, Range, Return, SIMPLENUM, Scope, Slice, Splat, Switch, TAB, THIS, Throw, Try, UTILITIES, Value, While, YES, compact, del, ends, extend, flatten, last, merge, multident, starts, unfoldSoak, utility, _ref,
     __hasProp = Object.prototype.hasOwnProperty,
diff --git a/lib/coffee-script/optparse.js b/lib/coffee-script/optparse.js
index 391818a3..71d90ebd 100644
--- a/lib/coffee-script/optparse.js
+++ b/lib/coffee-script/optparse.js
@@ -1,3 +1,4 @@
+// Generated by CoffeeScript 1.2.1-pre
 (function() {
   var LONG_FLAG, MULTI_FLAG, OPTIONAL, OptionParser, SHORT_FLAG, buildRule, buildRules, normalizeArguments;
 
diff --git a/lib/coffee-script/repl.js b/lib/coffee-script/repl.js
index 9513b483..0cf7eccb 100644
--- a/lib/coffee-script/repl.js
+++ b/lib/coffee-script/repl.js
@@ -1,3 +1,4 @@
+// Generated by CoffeeScript 1.2.1-pre
 (function() {
   var ACCESSOR, CoffeeScript, Module, REPL_PROMPT, REPL_PROMPT_CONTINUATION, REPL_PROMPT_MULTILINE, SIMPLEVAR, Script, autocomplete, backlog, completeAttribute, completeVariable, enableColours, error, getCompletions, inspect, multilineMode, readline, repl, stdin, stdout;
 
diff --git a/lib/coffee-script/rewriter.js b/lib/coffee-script/rewriter.js
index 56a10386..8efb129b 100644
--- a/lib/coffee-script/rewriter.js
+++ b/lib/coffee-script/rewriter.js
@@ -1,3 +1,4 @@
+// Generated by CoffeeScript 1.2.1-pre
 (function() {
   var BALANCED_PAIRS, EXPRESSION_CLOSE, EXPRESSION_END, EXPRESSION_START, IMPLICIT_BLOCK, IMPLICIT_CALL, IMPLICIT_END, IMPLICIT_FUNC, IMPLICIT_UNSPACED_CALL, INVERSES, LINEBREAKS, SINGLE_CLOSERS, SINGLE_LINERS, left, rite, _i, _len, _ref,
     __indexOf = Array.prototype.indexOf || function(item) { for (var i = 0, l = this.length; i < l; i++) { if (i in this && this[i] === item) return i; } return -1; },
diff --git a/lib/coffee-script/scope.js b/lib/coffee-script/scope.js
index 6f21cc3f..ccadbe0d 100644
--- a/lib/coffee-script/scope.js
+++ b/lib/coffee-script/scope.js
@@ -1,3 +1,4 @@
+// Generated by CoffeeScript 1.2.1-pre
 (function() {
   var Scope, extend, last, _ref;
 
diff --git a/src/coffee-script.coffee b/src/coffee-script.coffee
index 01751cc9..043de3ac 100644
--- a/src/coffee-script.coffee
+++ b/src/coffee-script.coffee
@@ -34,10 +34,13 @@ exports.helpers = require './helpers'
 exports.compile = compile = (code, options = {}) ->
   {merge} = exports.helpers
   try
-    (parser.parse lexer.tokenize code).compile merge {}, options
+    js = (parser.parse lexer.tokenize code).compile options
+    return js unless options.header
   catch err
     err.message = "In #{options.filename}, #{err.message}" if options.filename
     throw err
+  header = "Generated by CoffeeScript #{@VERSION}"
+  "// #{header}\n#{js}"
 
 # Tokenize a string of CoffeeScript code, and return the array of tokens.
 exports.tokens = (code, options) ->
diff --git a/src/command.coffee b/src/command.coffee
index 6711a088..d754dae0 100644
--- a/src/command.coffee
+++ b/src/command.coffee
@@ -313,7 +313,8 @@ parseOptions = ->
   return
 
 # The compile-time options to pass to the CoffeeScript compiler.
-compileOptions = (filename) -> {filename, bare: opts.bare}
+compileOptions = (filename) ->
+  {filename, bare: opts.bare, header: opts.compile}
 
 # Start up a new Node.js instance with the arguments in `--nodejs` passed to
 # the `node` binary, preserving the other options.
diff --git a/test/compilation.coffee b/test/compilation.coffee
index 91c1f631..8ea599cb 100644
--- a/test/compilation.coffee
+++ b/test/compilation.coffee
@@ -13,6 +13,10 @@ test "--bare", ->
   eq -1, CoffeeScript.compile('x = y', bare: on).indexOf 'function'
   ok 'passed' is CoffeeScript.eval '"passed"', bare: on, filename: 'test'
 
+test "header (#1778)", ->
+  header = "// Generated by CoffeeScript #{CoffeeScript.VERSION}\n"
+  eq 0, CoffeeScript.compile('x = y', header: on).indexOf header
+
 test "multiple generated references", ->
   a = {b: []}
   a.b[true] = -> this == a.b