diff --git a/CMakeLists.txt b/CMakeLists.txt
index c3a8b99..e256554 100644
--- a/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -13,7 +13,7 @@
 # limitations under the License.!
 
 cmake_minimum_required(VERSION 3.1 FATAL_ERROR)
-file(STRINGS "VERSION" SPM_VERSION)
+file(STRINGS "VERSION.txt" SPM_VERSION)
 message(STATUS "VERSION: ${SPM_VERSION}")
 project(sentencepiece VERSION ${SPM_VERSION} LANGUAGES C CXX)
 
diff --git a/VERSION b/VERSION.txt
similarity index 100%
rename from VERSION
rename to VERSION.txt
diff --git a/python/VERSION b/python/VERSION.txt
similarity index 100%
rename from python/VERSION
rename to python/VERSION.txt
diff --git a/python/setup.py b/python/setup.py
index 1e9bf07..9551ad9 100755
--- a/python/setup.py
+++ b/python/setup.py
@@ -33,7 +33,7 @@ def long_description():
 
 
 def version():
-  with codecs.open('VERSION', 'r', 'utf-8') as f:
+  with codecs.open('VERSION.txt', 'r', 'utf-8') as f:
     version = f.read().rstrip()
     return version
 
diff --git a/src/common.h b/src/common.h
index af0b1c2..7c6c43c 100644
--- a/src/common.h
+++ b/src/common.h
@@ -132,6 +132,9 @@ enum LogSeverity {
   LOG_SEVERITY_SIZE = 4,
 };
 
+int GetMinLogLevel();
+void SetMinLogLevel(int v);
+
 inline const char *BaseName(const char *path) {
 #ifdef OS_WIN
   const char *p = strrchr(path, '\\');
@@ -144,10 +147,8 @@ inline const char *BaseName(const char *path) {
 }  // namespace logging
 }  // namespace sentencepiece
 
-ABSL_DECLARE_FLAG(int32, minloglevel);
-
 #define LOG(severity)                                                        \
-  (absl::GetFlag(FLAGS_minloglevel) >                                        \
+  (::sentencepiece::logging::GetMinLogLevel() >                              \
    ::sentencepiece::logging::LOG_##severity)                                 \
       ? 0                                                                    \
       : ::sentencepiece::error::Die(                                         \
diff --git a/src/init.cc b/src/init.cc
index f1800c5..09de112 100644
--- a/src/init.cc
+++ b/src/init.cc
@@ -14,8 +14,11 @@
 
 #include "init.h"
 
+#include "common.h"
 #include "third_party/absl/flags/flag.h"
 
+ABSL_DECLARE_FLAG(int32, minloglevel);
+
 namespace sentencepiece {
 
 void ParseCommandLineFlags(const char *usage, int *argc, char ***argv,
@@ -28,5 +31,7 @@ void ParseCommandLineFlags(const char *usage, int *argc, char ***argv,
     std::copy(unused_args.begin(), unused_args.end(), argv_val);
     *argc = static_cast<int>(unused_args.size());
   }
+
+  logging::SetMinLogLevel(absl::GetFlag(FLAGS_minloglevel));
 }
 }  // namespace sentencepiece
diff --git a/src/sentencepiece_trainer.cc b/src/sentencepiece_trainer.cc
index bb4a9c7..429d0f4 100644
--- a/src/sentencepiece_trainer.cc
+++ b/src/sentencepiece_trainer.cc
@@ -12,6 +12,8 @@
 // See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
 // limitations under the License.!
 
+#include "sentencepiece_trainer.h"
+
 #include <string>
 #include <vector>
 
@@ -20,9 +22,7 @@
 #include "normalizer.h"
 #include "sentencepiece.pb.h"
 #include "sentencepiece_model.pb.h"
-#include "sentencepiece_trainer.h"
 #include "spec_parser.h"
-#include "third_party/absl/flags/flag.h"
 #include "third_party/absl/strings/numbers.h"
 #include "third_party/absl/strings/str_cat.h"
 #include "third_party/absl/strings/str_split.h"
@@ -31,8 +31,6 @@
 #include "trainer_factory.h"
 #include "util.h"
 
-ABSL_DECLARE_FLAG(int, minloglevel);
-
 namespace sentencepiece {
 namespace {
 static constexpr char kDefaultNormalizerName[] = "nmt_nfkc";
@@ -151,7 +149,7 @@ util::Status SentencePieceTrainer::MergeSpecsFromArgs(
     } else if (key == "minloglevel") {
       int v = 0;
       CHECK_OR_RETURN(absl::SimpleAtoi(value, &v));
-      absl::SetFlag(&FLAGS_minloglevel, v);
+      logging::SetMinLogLevel(v);
       continue;
     }
 
diff --git a/src/util.cc b/src/util.cc
index 58225ae..9120673 100644
--- a/src/util.cc
+++ b/src/util.cc
@@ -20,6 +20,7 @@ namespace sentencepiece {
 namespace {
 constexpr unsigned int kDefaultSeed = static_cast<unsigned int>(-1);
 static unsigned int g_seed = kDefaultSeed;
+static int g_minloglevel = 0;
 }  // namespace
 
 void SetRandomGeneratorSeed(unsigned int seed) {
@@ -30,6 +31,11 @@ uint32 GetRandomGeneratorSeed() {
   return g_seed == kDefaultSeed ? std::random_device{}() : g_seed;
 }
 
+namespace logging {
+int GetMinLogLevel() { return g_minloglevel; }
+void SetMinLogLevel(int v) { g_minloglevel = v; }
+}  // namespace logging
+
 namespace string_util {
 
 // mblen sotres the number of bytes consumed after decoding.