diff --git a/Makefile b/Makefile
index dde09a5..665e96c 100644
--- a/Makefile
+++ b/Makefile
@@ -410,12 +410,11 @@
 
 CLI_OBJS = cli_classic.o cli_output.o cli_common.o print.o
 
-# versioninfo.inc stores metadata required to build a packaged flashrom. It is generated by the export rule and
-# imported below. If versioninfo.inc is not found and the variables are not defined by the user, the info will
-# be obtained using util/getrevision.sh, which is the common case during development.
--include versioninfo.inc
-VERSION ?= $(shell ./util/getrevision.sh --revision)
-MAN_DATE ?= $(shell ./util/getrevision.sh --date $(PROGRAM).8.tmpl 2>/dev/null)
+# By default version information will be fetched from Git if available.
+# Otherwise, versioninfo.inc stores the metadata required to build a
+# packaged flashrom. It is generated by the export, tag and branch rules.
+VERSION := $(shell ./util/getversion.sh --version)
+MAN_DATE := $(shell ./util/getversion.sh --man-date)
 
 SCMDEF := -D'FLASHROM_VERSION="$(VERSION)"'
 
diff --git a/util/getversion.sh b/util/getversion.sh
index d3810d2..6733af0 100755
--- a/util/getversion.sh
+++ b/util/getversion.sh
@@ -13,29 +13,37 @@
 # GNU General Public License for more details.
 #
 
+GETREVISION=$(dirname ${0})/getrevision.sh
+
 version() {
-	if [ -r versioninfo.inc ]; then
-		v=$(sed -n 's/^VERSION = //p' versioninfo.inc)
-	else
-		v=$($(dirname ${0})/getrevision.sh --revision)
-		if [ $? -ne 0 ]; then
-			v='unknown'
+	v='unknown'
+	if ${GETREVISION} -c; then
+		tmp=$(${GETREVISION} --revision)
+		if [ $? -eq 0 ]; then
+			v="${tmp}"
 		fi
 	fi
 
+	if [ "$v" = unknown -a -r versioninfo.inc ]; then
+		v=$(sed -n 's/^VERSION = //p' versioninfo.inc)
+	fi
+
 	echo ${v}
 }
 
 mandate() {
-	if [ -r versioninfo.inc ]; then
-		d=$(sed -n 's/^MAN_DATE = //p' versioninfo.inc)
-	else
-		d=$($(dirname ${0})/getrevision.sh --date flashrom.8.tmpl)
-		if [ $? -ne 0 ]; then
-			d='unknown'
+	d='unknown'
+	if ${GETREVISION} -c flashrom.8.tmpl; then
+		tmp=$(${GETREVISION} --date flashrom.8.tmpl)
+		if [ $? -eq 0 ]; then
+			d="${tmp}"
 		fi
 	fi
 
+	if [ "$d" = unknown -a -r versioninfo.inc ]; then
+		d=$(sed -n 's/^MAN_DATE = //p' versioninfo.inc)
+	fi
+
 	echo ${d}
 }