diff --git a/src/gitversion/gitversion.cmake b/src/gitversion/gitversion.cmake
index a1bc954c..4354f80e 100644
--- a/src/gitversion/gitversion.cmake
+++ b/src/gitversion/gitversion.cmake
@@ -11,4 +11,7 @@ function (get_git_version OUTPUT_VARIABLE)
     IF(NOT ${result} EQUAL 0)
         MESSAGE(FATAL_ERROR "Error running versioneer. Return code is: ${result}, error message is: ${error}")
     ENDIF()
+    IF("${STRIPPED_VERSION}" EQUAL "0+unknown")
+        MESSAGE(FATAL_ERROR "Unable to find git version information. Please build directly from a git repository (i.e. after git clone).")
+    ENDIF()
 endfunction(get_git_version)