From faa42c85032dd509a22db44b7e63296092e33d35 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Michael Brown <mcb30@ipxe.org>
Date: Wed, 21 Jan 2026 22:23:49 +0000
Subject: [PATCH] [build] Do not use "git describe" to construct version number

Using "git describe" to automatically construct the version number has
caused more problems than it has solved.  In particular, it causes
errors when building from a shallow clone of the repository, which is
a common scenario in modern automated build environments.

Define the base version number (currently 1.21.1+) as a set of
hardcoded constants within the Makefile, to be updated whenever a
release is made.

It is extremely useful to have the git commit ID present in the
startup banner.  End users tend to provide screenshots of failures,
and having the commit ID printed at startup makes it trivial to
identify which version of the code is in use.  Identify the git
version (if building from a git tree) by directly reading from
.git/HEAD and associated files.  This allows the git commit ID to
potentially be included even if the build environment does not have
the git tools installed.

Use the default shallow clone in the GitHub Actions workflow, since we
no longer require access to the full commit history.

Signed-off-by: Michael Brown <mcb30@ipxe.org>
---
 .github/workflows/build.yml |  6 ------
 src/Makefile                | 34 +++++++++++++++++++---------------
 2 files changed, 19 insertions(+), 21 deletions(-)

diff --git a/.github/workflows/build.yml b/.github/workflows/build.yml
index 8a8e3e81a..6f63efefb 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/build.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/build.yml
@@ -33,8 +33,6 @@ jobs:
     steps:
       - name: Check out code
         uses: actions/checkout@v4
-        with:
-          fetch-depth: 0
       - name: Cache permissions
         run: |
           sudo chown $(id -un) /var/cache/apt/archives
@@ -69,8 +67,6 @@ jobs:
     steps:
       - name: Check out code
         uses: actions/checkout@v4
-        with:
-          fetch-depth: 0
       - name: Cache permissions
         run: |
           sudo chown $(id -un) /var/cache/apt/archives
@@ -99,8 +95,6 @@ jobs:
     steps:
       - name: Check out code
         uses: actions/checkout@v4
-        with:
-          fetch-depth: 0
       - name: Cache permissions
         run: |
           sudo chown $(id -un) /var/cache/apt/archives
diff --git a/src/Makefile b/src/Makefile
index f9d782f97..b93c08f9d 100644
--- a/src/Makefile
+++ b/src/Makefile
@@ -210,23 +210,27 @@ install :
 #
 # Version number calculations
 #
-ifneq ($(wildcard ../.git),)
-VERSIONS := $(shell git describe --tags --always --long --abbrev=1 --match "v*")
-VERSION_TUPLE	:= $(subst ., ,$(subst -, ,$(patsubst v%,%,$(VERSIONS))))
-VERSION_MAJOR	:= $(word 1,$(VERSION_TUPLE))
-VERSION_MINOR	:= $(word 2,$(VERSION_TUPLE))
-VERSION_PATCH	:= $(word 3,$(VERSION_TUPLE))
-ifeq ($(word 4,$(VERSION_TUPLE)),0)
-EXTRAVERSION	:=
-else
+VERSION_MAJOR	:= 1
+VERSION_MINOR	:= 21
+VERSION_PATCH	:= 1
 EXTRAVERSION	:= +
-endif
-GITVERSION	= $(word 5,$(VERSION_TUPLE))
+ifneq ($(wildcard ../.git/HEAD),)
+GITHEAD		:= $(shell cat ../.git/HEAD)
+ifneq ($(firstword $(GITHEAD)),ref:)
+GITCOMMIT	:= $(GITHEAD)
 else
-VERSION_MAJOR	= 1
-VERSION_MINOR	= 0
-VERSION_PATCH	= 0
-EXTRAVERSION	= +
+GITREF		:= $(word 2,$(GITHEAD))
+ifneq ($(wildcard ../.git/$(GITREF)),)
+GITCOMMIT	:= $(shell cat ../.git/$(GITREF))
+else
+GITCOMMIT	:= $(shell awk -v ref="$(GITREF)" '$$2 == ref { print $1 }' \
+			   ../.git/packed-refs)
+endif
+endif
+ifeq ($(GITCOMMIT),)
+$(error Unable to determine git commit ID)
+endif
+GITVERSION	:= g$(shell echo "$(GITCOMMIT)" | cut -c1-5)
 endif
 MM_VERSION	= $(VERSION_MAJOR).$(VERSION_MINOR)
 VERSION		= $(MM_VERSION).$(VERSION_PATCH)$(EXTRAVERSION)