diff --git a/configure.ac b/configure.ac
index 73a73de7..78383a6d 100644
--- a/configure.ac
+++ b/configure.ac
@@ -1,7 +1,4 @@
-m4_define([jq_version],
-          m4_esyscmd_s([(git rev-parse --verify -q jq-1.0 > /dev/null &&
-                        (git describe --tags --dirty --match 'jq-*'|sed 's/^jq-//')) ||
-                        echo `git rev-parse --abbrev-ref HEAD`-`git describe --always --dirty`])))
+m4_define([jq_version], m4_esyscmd_s([scripts/version])))
 
 AC_INIT([jq], [jq_version], [https://github.com/jqlang/jq/issues],
              [jq], [https://jqlang.github.io/jq])
diff --git a/scripts/version b/scripts/version
index 0e8094c2..d56dd9a7 100755
--- a/scripts/version
+++ b/scripts/version
@@ -1,10 +1,11 @@
 #!/bin/sh
-set -e
-cd `dirname "$0"`
-if git rev-parse --verify -q jq-1.0 > /dev/null 2>&1; then
-    git describe --tags --match 'jq-*' --dirty | sed 's/^jq-//'
+set -eu
+
+cd "$(dirname "$0")"
+if git describe --tags --match 'jq-*' >/dev/null 2>&1; then
+  git describe --tags --match 'jq-*' --dirty | sed 's/^jq-//'
 else
-    b=`git rev-parse --abbrev-ref HEAD`
-    c=`git describe --always --dirty`
-    echo "${b}-${c}"
+  branch=$(git rev-parse --abbrev-ref HEAD)
+  commit=$(git describe --always --dirty)
+  echo "${branch}-${commit}"
 fi