diff --git a/version.sh b/version.sh
index 1a1562d5f6..adaa46aa91 100755
--- a/version.sh
+++ b/version.sh
@@ -1,7 +1,7 @@
 #!/bin/sh
 
 # check for SVN revision number
-revision=$(cat snapshot_version)
+revision=$(cat snapshot_version 2> /dev/null)
 test $revision || revision=$(cd "$1" && LC_ALL=C svn info 2> /dev/null | grep Revision | cut -d' ' -f2)
 test $revision || revision=$(cd "$1" && grep revision .svn/entries 2>/dev/null | cut -d '"' -f2)
 test $revision || revision=$(cd "$1" && sed -n -e '/^dir$/{n;p;q}' .svn/entries 2>/dev/null)