diff --git a/git-version-gen b/git-version-gen
index 51d4bf7..42cf3d2 100755
--- a/git-version-gen
+++ b/git-version-gen
@@ -93,7 +93,8 @@
 then
     : # use $v
 elif
-       v=`git tag -l --sort=v:refname | grep "^[0-9]*.[0-9]*.[0-9]*$" | tail -n 1 2>/dev/null` \
+       v=`git describe --abbrev=4 --match='v*' HEAD 2>/dev/null \
+	  || git describe --abbrev=4 HEAD 2>/dev/null` \
     && case $v in
 	 [0-9]*) ;;
 	 v[0-9]*) ;;