diff --git a/app/views/layouts/application.html.erb b/app/views/layouts/application.html.erb
index 437c36e46..38669d745 100644
--- a/app/views/layouts/application.html.erb
+++ b/app/views/layouts/application.html.erb
@@ -58,6 +58,6 @@
     <%= render :partial => "common/discourse_javascript" %>
     <%= render_google_analytics_code %>
 
-    <!-- Git Version: <%= $git_version %> -->
+    <!-- Git Version: <%= Discourse.git_version %> -->
   </body>
 </html>
diff --git a/config/application.rb b/config/application.rb
index 99591b514..c9fb85768 100644
--- a/config/application.rb
+++ b/config/application.rb
@@ -1,7 +1,4 @@
 require File.expand_path('../boot', __FILE__)
-# our version info can be missing, we will do our best to figure it out
-require File.expand_path('../version', __FILE__) rescue nil
-
 require 'rails/all'
 require 'redis-store' # HACK
 
diff --git a/lib/discourse.rb b/lib/discourse.rb
index 4d0d119b7..58349b039 100644
--- a/lib/discourse.rb
+++ b/lib/discourse.rb
@@ -45,8 +45,12 @@ module Discourse
   end
 
   def self.git_version
+    return $git_version if $git_version 
+    f = Rails.root.to_s + "/config/version"
+    require f if File.exists?("#{f}.rb")
+
     begin
-      $git_version ||= `git rev-parse HEAD`
+      $git_version ||= `git rev-parse HEAD`.strip
     rescue
       $git_version = "unknown"
     end