diff --git a/make/release_flags.mk b/make/release_flags.mk
index a2ad803dd..c0a369cd2 100644
--- a/make/release_flags.mk
+++ b/make/release_flags.mk
@@ -1,4 +1,5 @@
-VERSION_TAG = $(shell git describe --tags)
+# Create a globally-consistent, build-input identifier.
+VERSION_TAG = $(shell git describe --abbrev=40 --broken --tags --always)
 VERSION_CHECK = @$(call print, "Building master with date version tag")
 
 BUILD_SYSTEM = darwin-amd64 \