diff --git a/pkgs/build-support/fetchurl/default.nix b/pkgs/build-support/fetchurl/default.nix
index f74465be9b4..88d89feb823 100644
--- a/pkgs/build-support/fetchurl/default.nix
+++ b/pkgs/build-support/fetchurl/default.nix
@@ -133,7 +133,7 @@ stdenvNoCC.mkDerivation {
 
   impureEnvVars = impureEnvVars ++ netrcImpureEnvVars;
 
-  nixpkgsVersion = lib.fileContents ../../../.version;
+  nixpkgsVersion = lib.release;
 
   # Doing the download on a remote machine just duplicates network
   # traffic, so don't do that.