diff --git a/pkgs/tools/compression/advancecomp/default.nix b/pkgs/tools/compression/advancecomp/default.nix
index fb027c4e2d5..e648aa6feb6 100644
--- a/pkgs/tools/compression/advancecomp/default.nix
+++ b/pkgs/tools/compression/advancecomp/default.nix
@@ -28,6 +28,13 @@ stdenv.mkDerivation rec {
     })
   ];
 
+  # autover.sh relies on 'git describe', which obviously doesn't work as we're not cloning
+  # the full git repo. so we have to put the version number in `.version`, otherwise
+  # the binaries get built reporting "none" as their version number.
+  postPatch = ''
+    echo "${version}" >.version
+  '';
+
   meta = with stdenv.lib; {
     description = ''A set of tools to optimize deflate-compressed files'';
     license = licenses.gpl3 ;