diff --git a/sys-libs/db/db-4.8.30-r2.ebuild b/sys-libs/db/db-4.8.30-r2.ebuild
index 5584a2c..d57cce8 100644
--- a/sys-libs/db/db-4.8.30-r2.ebuild
+++ b/sys-libs/db/db-4.8.30-r2.ebuild
@@ -28,7 +28,7 @@ done
 LICENSE="Sleepycat"
 SLOT="4.8"
 KEYWORDS="alpha amd64 arm arm64 hppa ia64 m68k ~mips ppc ppc64 s390 sh sparc x86 ~amd64-fbsd ~sparc-fbsd ~x86-fbsd"
-IUSE="doc java cxx tcl test"
+IUSE="debian-symver doc java cxx tcl test"
 
 REQUIRED_USE="test? ( tcl )"
 
@@ -44,6 +44,25 @@ RDEPEND="tcl? ( >=dev-lang/tcl-8.5.15-r1:0=[${MULTILIB_USEDEP}] )
 		!app-emulation/emul-linux-x86-baselibs[-abi_x86_32(-)]
 	)"
 
+pkg_pretend() {
+	if ( has_version "${CATEGORY}/${PN}[-debian-symver(-)]" && use debian-symver ) || \
+	   ( has_version "${CATEGORY}/${PN}[debian-symver(-)]" && ! use debian-symver ) ; then
+		ewarn
+		ewarn "- WARNING - WARNING - WARNING - WARNING - WARNING -"
+		ewarn "${CATEGORY}/${PN}:${SLOT} USE=debian-symver change detected"
+		ewarn
+		ewarn "You are choosing a different symbol versioning scheme due to a"
+		ewarn "change in the state of USE=debian-symver -- this *will* break"
+		ewarn "the ABI compared to the current installation, in a way that"
+		ewarn "@preserved-libs will NOT save you from.  Please imediately"
+		ewarn "rebuild any consumers of ${CATEGORY}/${PN}:${SLOT} after merging"
+		ewarn "this change.  The following can help you with this:"
+		ewarn
+		ewarn "revdep-rebuild --library libdb-${SLOT}\.so libdb_cxx-${SLOT}\.so libdbstl-${SLOT}\.so"
+		ewarn
+	fi
+}
+
 src_prepare() {
 	cd "${WORKDIR}"/"${MY_P}" || die
 	for (( i=1 ; i<=${PATCHNO} ; i++ ))
@@ -101,7 +120,14 @@ multilib_src_configure() {
 
 	# Add linker versions to the symbols. Easier to do, and safer than header file
 	# mumbo jumbo.
-	if use userland_GNU ; then
+	if use debian-symver ; then
+		append-ldflags -Wl,--version-script,"${T}"/symver-script
+		cat >"${T}"/symver-script <<SYMVER_EOF
+DB${SLOT/\./_} {
+    global: *;
+};
+SYMVER_EOF
+	elif use userland_GNU ; then
 		append-ldflags -Wl,--default-symver
 	fi
 
diff --git a/sys-libs/db/metadata.xml b/sys-libs/db/metadata.xml
index 19c6522..0f2112d 100644
--- a/sys-libs/db/metadata.xml
+++ b/sys-libs/db/metadata.xml
@@ -24,6 +24,7 @@ Perl API's. DB is beschikbaar voor veel UNIX platformen en
 Windows.
 </longdescription>
 <use>
+	<flag name="debian-symver">Use DBX_Y symbol versioning in libraries, matching those of debian</flag>
 	<flag name="rpc">Enable rpc client/server</flag>
 </use>
 </pkgmetadata>