diff --git a/lib/default.nix b/lib/default.nix
index dea82ee077e..033269e6b60 100644
--- a/lib/default.nix
+++ b/lib/default.nix
@@ -22,6 +22,8 @@ let
 in
   { inherit trivial lists strings stringsWithDeps attrsets sources options
       properties modules types meta debug maintainers licenses platforms systems;
+    # Pull in some builtins not included elsewhere.
+    inherit (builtins) pathExists readFile;
   }
   # !!! don't include everything at top-level; perhaps only the most
   # commonly used functions.
diff --git a/lib/lists.nix b/lib/lists.nix
index 578686ae366..262a529b2b6 100644
--- a/lib/lists.nix
+++ b/lib/lists.nix
@@ -1,14 +1,14 @@
 # General list operations.
 let
+
   inherit (import ./trivial.nix) deepSeq;
 
   inc = builtins.add 1;
 
   dec = n: builtins.sub n 1;
 
-  inherit (builtins) elemAt;
 in rec {
-  inherit (builtins) head tail length isList add sub lessThan;
+  inherit (builtins) head tail length isList add sub lessThan elemAt;
 
 
   # Create a list consisting of a single element.  `singleton x' is
diff --git a/nixos/doc/manual/default.nix b/nixos/doc/manual/default.nix
index a46ec06dac0..3e075529be8 100644
--- a/nixos/doc/manual/default.nix
+++ b/nixos/doc/manual/default.nix
@@ -1,6 +1,5 @@
 { pkgs, options
-# revision can have multiple values: local, HEAD or any revision number.
-, revision ? "HEAD"
+, revision ? "master"
 }:
 
 with pkgs.lib;
diff --git a/nixos/modules/misc/version.nix b/nixos/modules/misc/version.nix
index 14437228c74..489fcaeb989 100644
--- a/nixos/modules/misc/version.nix
+++ b/nixos/modules/misc/version.nix
@@ -29,11 +29,11 @@ with pkgs.lib;
   config = {
 
     system.nixosVersion =
-      mkDefault (builtins.readFile "${toString pkgs.path}/.version" + config.system.nixosVersionSuffix);
+      mkDefault (readFile "${toString pkgs.path}/.version" + config.system.nixosVersionSuffix);
 
     system.nixosVersionSuffix =
       let suffixFile = "${toString pkgs.path}/.version-suffix"; in
-      mkDefault (if builtins.pathExists suffixFile then builtins.readFile suffixFile else "pre-git");
+      mkDefault (if pathExists suffixFile then readFile suffixFile else "pre-git");
 
     # Note: code names must only increase in alphabetical order.
     system.nixosCodeName = "Aardvark";
diff --git a/nixos/modules/services/misc/nixos-manual.nix b/nixos/modules/services/misc/nixos-manual.nix
index 1260272b68e..c522868c1d9 100644
--- a/nixos/modules/services/misc/nixos-manual.nix
+++ b/nixos/modules/services/misc/nixos-manual.nix
@@ -12,8 +12,10 @@ let
   cfg = config.services.nixosManual;
 
   manual = import ../../../doc/manual {
-    inherit (cfg) revision;
     inherit pkgs;
+    revision =
+      let fn = "${toString pkgs.path}/.git-revision";
+      in if pathExists fn then readFile fn else "master";
     options = (fixMergeModules baseModules
       (removeAttrs extraArgs ["config" "options"]) // {
         modules = [ ];
@@ -75,16 +77,6 @@ in
       '';
     };
 
-    services.nixosManual.revision = mkOption {
-      default = "local";
-      type = types.uniq types.string;
-      description = ''
-        Revision of the targeted source file.  This value can either be
-        <literal>"local"</literal>, <literal>"HEAD"</literal> or any
-        revision number embedded in a string.
-      '';
-    };
-
   };
 
 
diff --git a/nixos/release.nix b/nixos/release.nix
index e19403eccb6..d6135a6e1e9 100644
--- a/nixos/release.nix
+++ b/nixos/release.nix
@@ -91,6 +91,7 @@ in {
       distPhase = ''
         rm -rf .git
         echo -n $VERSION_SUFFIX > .version-suffix
+        echo -n ${nixpkgs.rev or nixpkgs.shortRev} > .git-revision
         releaseName=nixos-$VERSION$VERSION_SUFFIX
         mkdir -p $out/tarballs
         mkdir ../$releaseName