diff --git a/Makefile.common b/Makefile.common
index 2901c0397..4f0bdbd82 100644
--- a/Makefile.common
+++ b/Makefile.common
@@ -104,7 +104,7 @@ endif
 
 DOCDIR=html
 
-GIT_HASH = $(shell git rev-parse --short HEAD)
+GIT_HASH := $(shell git describe --tags --exact-match 2>/dev/null || git rev-parse --short HEAD)
 
 $(DOCDIR)/dependency_graph.pre:
 	mkdir -p $(DOCDIR)