diff --git a/git-version-gen b/git-version-gen
index 7546884..079b93e 100755
--- a/git-version-gen
+++ b/git-version-gen
@@ -84,7 +84,10 @@ then
     v=`cat $tarball_version_file` || exit 1
     case $v in
 	*$nl*) v= ;; # reject multi-line output
-	[0-9]*) ;;
+	[0-9]*)
+		echo "$v" | tr -d '\012'
+		exit 0
+		;;
 	*) v= ;;
     esac
     test -z "$v" \