diff --git a/.gitignore b/.gitignore
index f151e23..88286f9 100644
--- a/.gitignore
+++ b/.gitignore
@@ -17,3 +17,6 @@ gocryptfs.1
 # Dependencies copied by "dep"
 /vendor
 /_vendor-*
+
+# Source tarball version. Should never be commited to git.
+/VERSION
diff --git a/build.bash b/build.bash
index 237e274..b69f447 100755
--- a/build.bash
+++ b/build.bash
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-#!/bin/bash
+#!/bin/bash -eu
 #
 # Compile gocryptfs and bake the git version string of itself and the go-fuse
 # library into the binary.
@@ -7,38 +7,49 @@
 # you can use:
 # BUILDDATE=2017-02-03 ./build.bash
 
-set -eu
-
 cd "$(dirname "$0")"
 MYDIR=$PWD
 
+# Make sure we have the go binary
+go version > /dev/null
+
 # GOPATH may contain multiple paths separated by ":"
 GOPATH1=$(go env GOPATH | cut -f1 -d:)
 
-# gocryptfs version according to git
-GITVERSION=$(git describe --tags --dirty)
-
-# go-fuse version according to git
-# Note: git in CentOS 7 does not have "git -C" yet, so we use plain "cd".
-FAIL=0
-cd $GOPATH1/src/github.com/hanwen/go-fuse
-OUT=$(git describe --tags --dirty 2>&1) || FAIL=1
-if [[ $FAIL -ne 0 ]]; then
-	echo "$PWD: git describe: $OUT"
-	echo "Hint: are you missing git tags?"
-	exit 1
+# gocryptfs version according to git or a VERSION file
+if [[ -d .git ]] ; then
+	GITVERSION=$(git describe --tags --dirty)
+elif [[ -f VERSION ]] ; then
+	GITVERSION=$(cat VERSION)
+else
+	echo "Warning: could not determine gocryptfs version"
+	GITVERSION="[unknown]"
+fi
+
+# go-fuse version, if available
+if [[ -d vendor/github.com/hanwen/go-fuse ]] ; then
+	GITVERSIONFUSE="[vendored]"
+else
+	# go-fuse version according to git
+	# Note: git in CentOS 7 does not have "git -C" yet, so we use plain "cd".
+	FAIL=0
+	cd $GOPATH1/src/github.com/hanwen/go-fuse
+	OUT=$(git describe --tags --dirty 2>&1) || FAIL=1
+	if [[ $FAIL -eq 0 ]]; then
+		GITVERSIONFUSE=$OUT
+	else
+		echo "$PWD: git describe: $OUT"
+		echo "Warning: could not determine go-fuse version"
+		GITVERSIONFUSE="[unknown]"
+	fi
+	cd "$MYDIR"
 fi
-GITVERSIONFUSE=$OUT
-cd "$MYDIR"
 
 # Build date, something like "2017-09-06"
 if [[ -z ${BUILDDATE:-} ]] ; then
 	BUILDDATE=$(date +%Y-%m-%d)
 fi
 
-# Make sure we have the go binary
-go version > /dev/null
-
 LDFLAGS="-X main.GitVersion=$GITVERSION -X main.GitVersionFuse=$GITVERSIONFUSE -X main.BuildDate=$BUILDDATE"
 go build "-ldflags=$LDFLAGS" $@