diff --git a/build-scripts/showrev.sh b/build-scripts/showrev.sh
index bf31e17a9..682bf7278 100755
--- a/build-scripts/showrev.sh
+++ b/build-scripts/showrev.sh
@@ -6,5 +6,7 @@ srcdir=`dirname $0`/..
 
 if [ -d $srcdir/.svn ]; then
     cd $srcdir
-    svnversion -c | sed -e 's,[0-9]*:\([0-9]*\)[A-Z]*,\1,'
+    (svnversion -c 2>/dev/null || svnversion .) | \
+        sed -e 's,\([0-9]*\)[A-Z]*,\1,' \
+            -e 's,[0-9]*:\([0-9]*\)[A-Z]*,\1,'
 fi