diff --git a/Makefile b/Makefile
index aff6d531c..4c73e6ab7 100644
--- a/Makefile
+++ b/Makefile
@@ -10,8 +10,7 @@ GIT_BRANCH_CLEAN := $(shell echo $(GIT_BRANCH) | sed -e "s/[^[:alnum:]]/-/g")
 RUNC_IMAGE := runc_dev$(if $(GIT_BRANCH_CLEAN),:$(GIT_BRANCH_CLEAN))
 PROJECT := github.com/opencontainers/runc
 BUILDTAGS ?= seccomp
-COMMIT_NO := $(shell git rev-parse HEAD 2> /dev/null || true)
-COMMIT ?= $(if $(shell git status --porcelain --untracked-files=no),"$(COMMIT_NO)-dirty","$(COMMIT_NO)")
+COMMIT ?= $(shell git describe --dirty --long --always)
 VERSION := $(shell cat ./VERSION)
 
 # TODO: rm -mod=vendor once go 1.13 is unsupported
diff --git a/main.go b/main.go
index 328ea30c7..ba5e3c828 100644
--- a/main.go
+++ b/main.go
@@ -15,9 +15,9 @@ import (
 	"github.com/urfave/cli"
 )
 
-// version will be populated by the Makefile, read from
-// VERSION file of the source code.
-var version = ""
+// version must be set from the contents of VERSION file by go build's
+// -X main.version= option in the Makefile.
+var version = "unknown"
 
 // gitCommit will be the hash that the binary was built from
 // and will be populated by the Makefile
@@ -55,10 +55,8 @@ func main() {
 	app.Name = "runc"
 	app.Usage = usage
 
-	var v []string
-	if version != "" {
-		v = append(v, version)
-	}
+	v := []string{version}
+
 	if gitCommit != "" {
 		v = append(v, "commit: "+gitCommit)
 	}