diff --git a/bin/cdist-bin-transfer b/bin/cdist-bin-transfer
index 51cc5079..7b98de28 100755
--- a/bin/cdist-bin-transfer
+++ b/bin/cdist-bin-transfer
@@ -45,7 +45,7 @@ scp -qr "${__cdist_src_base}"* \
 
 # Adjust cdist-config to contain static version string
 tmp_version="$__cdist_version"
-sed "s/^\(__cdist_version=\).*/\1\"$tmp_version\"/" "$(which cdist-config)" | \
+sed "s/^: \${\(__cdist_version\):=.*/\1=\"$tmp_version\"/" "$(which cdist-config)" | \
    ssh -q "${__cdist_remote_user}@${__cdist_target_host}"                     \
       "cat > \"${__cdist_my_remote_out_dir}\"/cdist-config"
 
diff --git a/bin/cdist-config b/bin/cdist-config
index 40dd21b4..fd0ae9ab 100755
--- a/bin/cdist-config
+++ b/bin/cdist-config
@@ -31,7 +31,7 @@ __cdist_abs_mydir="$(cd "$__cdist_mydir" && pwd -P)"
 __cdist_myname=${0##*/};
 __cdist_abs_myname="$__cdist_abs_mydir/$__cdist_myname"
 
-__cdist_version="$(cd "$__cdist_abs_mydir/.." && git describe)"
+: ${__cdist_version:="$(cd "$__cdist_abs_mydir/.." && git describe)"}
 
 ################################################################################
 # Names / Constants
diff --git a/bin/cdist-manifest-run b/bin/cdist-manifest-run
index 7f5cdea7..240d446b 100755
--- a/bin/cdist-manifest-run
+++ b/bin/cdist-manifest-run
@@ -34,7 +34,7 @@ __cdist_output_dir="$1"; shift
 __cdist_work_dir="$__cdist_local_base_dir"
 
 # Export information for cdist-type-emulator
-export __cdist_conf_dir __cdist_output_dir __cdist_manifest
+export __cdist_conf_dir __cdist_output_dir __cdist_manifest __cdist_version
 
 # Export information for manifests
 export __global="$__cdist_out_dir"