diff --git a/version.sh b/version.sh
index b905470139..bd8ca48741 100755
--- a/version.sh
+++ b/version.sh
@@ -21,13 +21,18 @@ done
 # Extract revision number from file used by daily tarball snapshots
 # or from "git describe" output
 git_revision=$(cat snapshot_version 2> /dev/null)
-test $git_revision || test ! -e .git || git_revision=`git describe --match "v[0-9]*" --always --tags --long`
-git_revision=$(expr "$git_revision" : v*'\(.*\)')
-test $git_revision || git_revision=UNKNOWN
+test $git_revision || test ! -e .git || git_revision=`git rev-parse --short HEAD`
+test $git_revision && git_revision=git-$git_revision
+version="$git_revision"
 
 # releases extract the version number from the VERSION file
-version=$(cat VERSION 2> /dev/null)
-test $version || version=$git_revision
+releaseversion=$(cat VERSION 2> /dev/null)
+if test $releaseversion ; then
+    test $version && version="-$version"
+    version="$releaseversion$version"
+fi
+
+test $version || version=UNKNOWN
 
 VERSION="${version}${extra}"