Index: scripts/version
--- scripts/version.orig
+++ scripts/version
@@ -1,7 +1,7 @@
 #!/bin/sh
 # Distro packagers may set the LOCALVER variable to add their distribution to
 # the version, e.g. 1.0-alpine.
-VERSION=${VERSION:0.24.2}
+VERSION=${VERSION:-0.24.2}
 
 ver=$(git describe 2>/dev/null)
 if [ $? -ne 0 ]
