diff --git a/meson.build b/meson.build
index 2665024426d..ef9a0278c97 100644
--- a/meson.build
+++ b/meson.build
@@ -599,6 +599,11 @@ endif
 
 versiondep = declare_dependency(sources: version_h)
 
+shared_lib_tag = get_option('shared-lib-tag')
+if shared_lib_tag == ''
+        shared_lib_tag = meson.project_version()
+endif
+
 sh = find_program('sh')
 echo = find_program('echo')
 sed = find_program('sed')
@@ -2021,12 +2026,7 @@ dbus_programs += executable(
         link_with : [libcore,
                      libshared],
         dependencies : [versiondep,
-                        threads,
-                        librt,
-                        libseccomp,
-                        libselinux,
-                        libmount,
-                        libblkid],
+                        libseccomp],
         install_rpath : rootlibexecdir,
         install : true,
         install_dir : rootlibexecdir)
@@ -2042,12 +2042,7 @@ public_programs += executable(
         link_with : [libcore,
                      libshared],
         dependencies : [versiondep,
-                        threads,
-                        librt,
-                        libseccomp,
-                        libselinux,
-                        libmount,
-                        libblkid],
+                        libseccomp],
         install_rpath : rootlibexecdir,
         install : conf.get('ENABLE_ANALYZE'))
 
@@ -3912,6 +3907,7 @@ summary({
         'D-Bus system directory' :          dbussystemservicedir,
         'bash completions directory' :      bashcompletiondir,
         'zsh completions directory' :       zshcompletiondir,
+        'private shared lib version tag' :  shared_lib_tag,
         'extra start script' :              get_option('rc-local'),
         'debug shell' :                     '@0@ @ @1@'.format(get_option('debug-shell'),
                                                                get_option('debug-tty')),
diff --git a/meson_options.txt b/meson_options.txt
index 401f0933d73..23691fb4986 100644
--- a/meson_options.txt
+++ b/meson_options.txt
@@ -3,6 +3,8 @@
 
 option('version-tag', type : 'string',
        description : 'override the git version string')
+option('shared-lib-tag', type : 'string',
+       description : 'override the private shared library version tag (defaults to project version)')
 
 option('mode', type : 'combo', choices : ['developer', 'release'],
        description : 'autoenable features suitable for systemd development/release builds')
diff --git a/src/core/meson.build b/src/core/meson.build
index d229d46779a..fd15a7fbefd 100644
--- a/src/core/meson.build
+++ b/src/core/meson.build
@@ -167,12 +167,18 @@ load_fragment_gperf_nulstr_c = custom_target(
         command : [awk, '-f', '@INPUT0@', '@INPUT1@'],
         capture : true)
 
-libcore = static_library(
-        'core',
+libcore_name = 'systemd-core-@0@'.format(shared_lib_tag)
+
+libcore = shared_library(
+        libcore_name,
         libcore_sources,
         load_fragment_gperf_c,
         load_fragment_gperf_nulstr_c,
         include_directories : includes,
+        c_args : ['-fvisibility=default'],
+        link_args : ['-shared',
+                     '-Wl,--version-script=' + libshared_sym_path],
+        link_with : libshared,
         dependencies : [versiondep,
                         threads,
                         libdl,
@@ -184,8 +190,10 @@ libcore = static_library(
                         libapparmor,
                         libselinux,
                         libmount,
+                        libblkid,
                         libacl],
-        build_by_default : false)
+        install : true,
+        install_dir : rootlibexecdir)
 
 core_includes = [includes, include_directories('.')]
 
diff --git a/src/shared/meson.build b/src/shared/meson.build
index 5dc58a863d4..f58d623f4a1 100644
--- a/src/shared/meson.build
+++ b/src/shared/meson.build
@@ -430,7 +430,7 @@ target2 = custom_target(
 shared_generated_gperf_headers = [target1, target2]
 shared_sources += shared_generated_gperf_headers
 
-libshared_name = 'systemd-shared-@0@'.format(meson.project_version())
+libshared_name = 'systemd-shared-@0@'.format(shared_lib_tag)
 
 libshared_deps = [threads,
                   libacl,
@@ -465,13 +465,13 @@ libshared_static = static_library(
 libshared = shared_library(
         libshared_name,
         include_directories : includes,
+        c_args : ['-fvisibility=default'],
         link_args : ['-shared',
                      '-Wl,--version-script=' + libshared_sym_path],
         link_whole : [libshared_static,
                       libbasic,
                       libbasic_gcrypt,
                       libsystemd_static],
-        c_args : ['-fvisibility=default'],
         dependencies : libshared_deps,
         install : true,
         install_dir : rootlibexecdir)
diff --git a/src/test/meson.build b/src/test/meson.build
index 9a1c481f226..364cd3dd3fd 100644
--- a/src/test/meson.build
+++ b/src/test/meson.build
@@ -419,7 +419,8 @@ tests += [
           libmount,
           libxz,
           liblz4,
-          libblkid],
+          libblkid,
+          libselinux],
          [core_includes, journal_includes, udev_includes]],
 
         [['src/test/test-prioq.c']],
diff --git a/test/test-functions b/test/test-functions
index 218d0e6888c..95d37d09d59 100644
--- a/test/test-functions
+++ b/test/test-functions
@@ -1932,11 +1932,9 @@ inst_libs() {
 
     while read -r line; do
         [[ "$line" = 'not a dynamic executable' ]] && break
-        # Skip a harmless error when running the tests on a system with a significantly
-        # older systemd version (ldd tries to resolve the unprefixed RPATH for libsystemd.so.0,
-        # which is in this case older than the already installed libsystemd.so.0 in $initdir).
-        # The issue is triggered by installing test dependencies in install_missing_libraries().
-        [[ "$line" =~ libsystemd.so.*:\ version\ .*\ not\ found ]] && continue
+        # Ignore errors about our own stuff missing. This is most likely caused
+        # by ldd attempting to use the unprefixed RPATH.
+        [[ "$line" =~ libsystemd.*\ not\ found ]] && continue
 
         if [[ "$line" =~ $so_regex ]]; then
             file="${BASH_REMATCH[1]}"
@@ -2309,7 +2307,7 @@ inst_binary() {
     # In certain cases we might attempt to install a binary which is already
     # present in the test image, yet it's missing from the host system.
     # In such cases, let's check if the binary indeed exists in the image
-    # before doing any other chcecks. If it does, immediately return with
+    # before doing any other checks. If it does, immediately return with
     # success.
     if [[ $# -eq 1 ]]; then
         for path in "" bin sbin usr/bin usr/sbin; do
@@ -2328,6 +2326,10 @@ inst_binary() {
     while read -r line; do
         [[ "$line" = 'not a dynamic executable' ]] && break
 
+        # Ignore errors about our own stuff missing. This is most likely caused
+        # by ldd attempting to use the unprefixed RPATH.
+        [[ "$line" =~ libsystemd.*\ not\ found ]] && continue
+
         if [[ "$line" =~ $so_regex ]]; then
             file="${BASH_REMATCH[1]}"
             [[ -e "${initdir}/$file" ]] && continue
diff --git a/tools/oss-fuzz.sh b/tools/oss-fuzz.sh
index 8a19da665eb..244eb83906b 100755
--- a/tools/oss-fuzz.sh
+++ b/tools/oss-fuzz.sh
@@ -67,7 +67,9 @@ df="$build/dns-fuzzing"
 git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/CZ-NIC/dns-fuzzing "$df"
 zip -jqr "$OUT/fuzz-dns-packet_seed_corpus.zip" "$df/packet"
 
-install -Dt "$OUT/src/shared/" "$build"/src/shared/libsystemd-shared-*.so
+install -Dt "$OUT/src/shared/" \
+        "$build"/src/shared/libsystemd-shared-*.so \
+        "$build"/src/core/libsystemd-core-*.so
 
 wget -O "$OUT/fuzz-json.dict" https://raw.githubusercontent.com/rc0r/afl-fuzz/master/dictionaries/json.dict