diff --git a/configure/E3/CONFIG_E3_MAKEFILE b/configure/E3/CONFIG_E3_MAKEFILE
index d06e0976696ed182e5df8621ecbda1b75821ffee..f0832ef01aacfc25b123fe804903ca269402cc8b 100644
--- a/configure/E3/CONFIG_E3_MAKEFILE
+++ b/configure/E3/CONFIG_E3_MAKEFILE
@@ -13,7 +13,7 @@ E3_REQUIRE_MAKEFILE_INPUT_OPTIONS += E3_SITEMODS_PATH="$(E3_SITEMODS_PATH)"
 ifeq ($(shell git status > /dev/null 2>&1; echo $$?),0)
 GIT_REMOTE_NAME := $(shell git remote | head -n 1)
 
-E3_REQUIRE_MAKEFILE_INPUT_OPTIONS += $(E3_MODULE_NAME)_E3_GIT_DESC="$(shell git describe --tags 2> /dev/null || git rev-parse HEAD 2> /dev/null || echo 'Not a git repository')"
+E3_REQUIRE_MAKEFILE_INPUT_OPTIONS += $(E3_MODULE_NAME)_E3_GIT_DESC="$(shell git rev-parse HEAD 2> /dev/null || echo 'Not a git repository')"
 E3_REQUIRE_MAKEFILE_INPUT_OPTIONS += $(E3_MODULE_NAME)_E3_GIT_STATUS="[ $(shell git status --porcelain | sed 's/^/\\\\\\\"/' | sed 's/$$/\\\\\\\", /')]"
 E3_REQUIRE_MAKEFILE_INPUT_OPTIONS += $(E3_MODULE_NAME)_E3_GIT_URL="$(shell git config --get remote.$(GIT_REMOTE_NAME).url 2> /dev/null | sed 's%^https://[^@]*@%https://%')"
 else
diff --git a/require-ess/tools/driver.makefile b/require-ess/tools/driver.makefile
index 205886a800daa6c8038c6ac6272f13afec743726..346d825e31ed33f458d8cefd2ab1776a5f21e826 100644
--- a/require-ess/tools/driver.makefile
+++ b/require-ess/tools/driver.makefile
@@ -486,7 +486,7 @@ export CFG
 # These variables are written into a .yaml file in the installed module directory to keep track of
 # metadata for which module was compiled.
 
-${PRJ}_GIT_DESC := $(shell git describe --tags 2> /dev/null || git rev-parse HEAD 2> /dev/null)
+${PRJ}_GIT_DESC := $(shell git rev-parse HEAD 2> /dev/null)
 export ${PRJ}_GIT_DESC
 # The formatting here is just to make sure this is properly parseable .yaml data
 ${PRJ}_GIT_STATUS := [ $(shell git status --porcelain 2> /dev/null | grep -v "\.Makefile" | sed 's/^/\\\"/' | sed 's/$$/\\\", /')]