diff --git a/GIT-VERSION-FILE.in b/GIT-VERSION-FILE.in
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..3789a48a34
--- /dev/null
+++ b/GIT-VERSION-FILE.in
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+GIT_VERSION=@GIT_VERSION@
diff --git a/GIT-VERSION-GEN b/GIT-VERSION-GEN
index 78e8631f67..7afc7aad14 100755
--- a/GIT-VERSION-GEN
+++ b/GIT-VERSION-GEN
@@ -1,23 +1,48 @@
 #!/bin/sh
 
-GVF=GIT-VERSION-FILE
 DEF_VER=v2.47.GIT
 
 LF='
 '
 
+if test "$#" -ne 3
+then
+    echo >&2 "USAGE: $0 <SOURCE_DIR> <INPUT> <OUTPUT>"
+    exit 1
+fi
+
+SOURCE_DIR="$1"
+INPUT="$2"
+OUTPUT="$3"
+
+if ! test -f "$INPUT"
+then
+	echo >&2 "Input is not a file: $INPUT"
+	exit 1
+fi
+
+# Protect us from reading Git version information outside of the Git directory
+# in case it is not a repository itself, but embedded in an unrelated
+# repository.
+GIT_CEILING_DIRECTORIES="$SOURCE_DIR/.."
+export GIT_CEILING_DIRECTORIES
+
 # First see if there is a version file (included in release tarballs),
 # then try git-describe, then default.
-if test -f version
+if test -f "$SOURCE_DIR"/version
 then
-	VN=$(cat version) || VN="$DEF_VER"
-elif { test -d "${GIT_DIR:-.git}" || test -f .git; } &&
-	VN=$(git describe --match "v[0-9]*" HEAD 2>/dev/null) &&
+	VN=$(cat "$SOURCE_DIR"/version) || VN="$DEF_VER"
+elif {
+		test -d "$SOURCE_DIR/.git" ||
+		test -d "${GIT_DIR:-.git}" ||
+		test -f "$SOURCE_DIR"/.git;
+	} &&
+	VN=$(git -C "$SOURCE_DIR" describe --match "v[0-9]*" HEAD 2>/dev/null) &&
 	case "$VN" in
 	*$LF*) (exit 1) ;;
 	v[0-9]*)
-		git update-index -q --refresh
-		test -z "$(git diff-index --name-only HEAD --)" ||
+		git -C "$SOURCE_DIR" update-index -q --refresh
+		test -z "$(git -C "$SOURCE_DIR" diff-index --name-only HEAD --)" ||
 		VN="$VN-dirty" ;;
 	esac
 then
@@ -26,15 +51,21 @@ else
 	VN="$DEF_VER"
 fi
 
-VN=$(expr "$VN" : v*'\(.*\)')
+GIT_VERSION=$(expr "$VN" : v*'\(.*\)')
 
-if test -r $GVF
+read GIT_MAJOR_VERSION GIT_MINOR_VERSION GIT_MICRO_VERSION trailing <<EOF
+$(echo "$GIT_VERSION" 0 0 0 | tr '.a-zA-Z-' ' ')
+EOF
+
+sed -e "s|@GIT_VERSION@|$GIT_VERSION|" \
+	-e "s|@GIT_MAJOR_VERSION@|$GIT_MAJOR_VERSION|" \
+	-e "s|@GIT_MINOR_VERSION@|$GIT_MINOR_VERSION|" \
+	-e "s|@GIT_MICRO_VERSION@|$GIT_MICRO_VERSION|" \
+	"$INPUT" >"$OUTPUT"+
+
+if ! test -f "$OUTPUT" || ! cmp "$OUTPUT"+ "$OUTPUT" >/dev/null
 then
-	VC=$(sed -e 's/^GIT_VERSION = //' <$GVF)
+	mv "$OUTPUT"+ "$OUTPUT"
 else
-	VC=unset
+	rm "$OUTPUT"+
 fi
-test "$VN" = "$VC" || {
-	echo >&2 "GIT_VERSION = $VN"
-	echo "GIT_VERSION = $VN" >$GVF
-}
diff --git a/Makefile b/Makefile
index 75e26d2e31..73510d6bcb 100644
--- a/Makefile
+++ b/Makefile
@@ -592,7 +592,10 @@ include shared.mak
 #        Disable -pedantic compilation.
 
 GIT-VERSION-FILE: FORCE
-	@$(SHELL_PATH) ./GIT-VERSION-GEN
+	@OLD=$$(cat $@ 2>/dev/null || :) && \
+	$(SHELL_PATH) ./GIT-VERSION-GEN "$(shell pwd)" GIT-VERSION-FILE.in $@ && \
+	NEW=$$(cat $@ 2>/dev/null || :) && \
+	if test "$$OLD" != "$$NEW"; then echo "$$NEW" >&2; fi
 -include GIT-VERSION-FILE
 
 # Set our default configuration.
diff --git a/ci/test-documentation.sh b/ci/test-documentation.sh
index 02b3af3941..6c018b673e 100755
--- a/ci/test-documentation.sh
+++ b/ci/test-documentation.sh
@@ -6,7 +6,7 @@
 . ${0%/*}/lib.sh
 
 filter_log () {
-	sed -e '/^GIT_VERSION = /d' \
+	sed -e '/^GIT_VERSION=/d' \
 	    -e "/constant Gem::ConfigMap is deprecated/d" \
 	    -e '/^    \* new asciidoc flags$/d' \
 	    -e '/stripped namespace before processing/d' \
diff --git a/contrib/buildsystems/CMakeLists.txt b/contrib/buildsystems/CMakeLists.txt
index 1abf5f099c..376d748ce9 100644
--- a/contrib/buildsystems/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/contrib/buildsystems/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -83,23 +83,12 @@ if(NOT SH_EXE)
 			"On Windows, you can get it as part of 'Git for Windows' install at https://gitforwindows.org/")
 endif()
 
-#Create GIT-VERSION-FILE using GIT-VERSION-GEN
-if(NOT EXISTS ${CMAKE_SOURCE_DIR}/GIT-VERSION-FILE)
-	message("Generating GIT-VERSION-FILE")
-	execute_process(COMMAND ${SH_EXE} ${CMAKE_SOURCE_DIR}/GIT-VERSION-GEN
-		WORKING_DIRECTORY ${CMAKE_SOURCE_DIR})
-endif()
-
-#Parse GIT-VERSION-FILE to get the version
-file(STRINGS ${CMAKE_SOURCE_DIR}/GIT-VERSION-FILE git_version REGEX "GIT_VERSION = (.*)")
-string(REPLACE "GIT_VERSION = " "" git_version ${git_version})
-string(FIND ${git_version} "GIT" location)
-if(location EQUAL -1)
-	string(REGEX MATCH "[0-9]*\\.[0-9]*\\.[0-9]*" git_version ${git_version})
-else()
-	string(REGEX MATCH "[0-9]*\\.[0-9]*" git_version ${git_version})
-	string(APPEND git_version ".0") #for building from a snapshot
-endif()
+message("Generating Git version")
+execute_process(COMMAND ${SH_EXE} "${CMAKE_SOURCE_DIR}/GIT-VERSION-GEN"
+		"${CMAKE_SOURCE_DIR}"
+		"${CMAKE_SOURCE_DIR}/contrib/buildsystems/git-version.in"
+		"${CMAKE_BINARY_DIR}/git-version")
+file(STRINGS "${CMAKE_BINARY_DIR}/git-version" git_version)
 
 project(git
 	VERSION ${git_version}
diff --git a/contrib/buildsystems/git-version.in b/contrib/buildsystems/git-version.in
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..9750505ae7
--- /dev/null
+++ b/contrib/buildsystems/git-version.in
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+@GIT_MAJOR_VERSION@.@GIT_MINOR_VERSION@.@GIT_MICRO_VERSION@