diff --git a/CMakeLists.txt b/CMakeLists.txt
index cbbff4eb99..6446d06954 100644
--- a/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -154,14 +154,23 @@ if (GNC_VCS_INFO_RESULT EQUAL 0)
   if (NOT GIT_FOUND)
     message(SEND_ERROR "Looks like we're building from version control, but can't find git executable. Please install git or set GIT_EXECUTABLE.")
   endif()
+endif()
+
+# Determine whether or not we have to generate a gnc-vcs-info.h file
+# Distribution tarballs have this file in the source tree
+# Git checkouts or zipfiles downloaded straight from github won't have it
+# and require us to build it.
+if (BUILDING_FROM_VCS OR NOT EXISTS "${CMAKE_SOURCE_DIR}/libgnucash/core-utilsgnc-vcs-info.h")
   set(VCS_INFO_BASE_DIR ${CMAKE_BINARY_DIR})
+  set(GENERATE_VCS_INFO "Yes")
 else()
   set(VCS_INFO_BASE_DIR ${CMAKE_SOURCE_DIR})
+  set(GENERATE_VCS_INFO "No")
 endif()
-# The location of gnc-vcs-info.h depends on whether we build from VCS or not
-# And this file is needed in several other build rules, so we define its
-# location once here.
-set(VCS_INFO_FILE ${VCS_INFO_BASE_DIR}/libgnucash/core-utils/gnc-vcs-info.h)
+# As the file's path is needed by several other build rules, we already define
+# that here. The actual build rules (if needed) are in libgnucash/core-utils.
+set(VCS_INFO_FILE ${VCS_INFO_BASE_DIR}/libgnucash/core-utils/gnc-vcs-info.h CACHE STRING "path to gnc-vcs-info.h file")
+
 
 if (WIN32)
   # Help Windows find the various dependencies. We assume here that the standard advice for building
diff --git a/cmake/CMakeLists.txt b/cmake/CMakeLists.txt
index 3d460e2f79..bb2f449514 100644
--- a/cmake/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/cmake/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -8,7 +8,15 @@ if (APPLE)
 endif()
 
 
-set_dist_list(cmake_DIST CMakeLists.txt README_CMAKE.txt cmake_uninstall.cmake.in
-    configure-appdata.cmake configure-gnucash-desktop.cmake configure-manpage.cmake
-    configure-totd.cmake git2version-info.cmake version-info2env.cmake
+set_dist_list(cmake_DIST
+  CMakeLists.txt
+  README_CMAKE.txt
+  cmake_uninstall.cmake.in
+  configure-appdata.cmake
+  configure-gnucash-desktop.cmake
+  configure-manpage.cmake
+  configure-totd.cmake
+  git2version-info.cmake
+  no-vcs2version-info.cmake
+  version-info2env.cmake
 )
diff --git a/cmake/no-vcs2version-info.cmake b/cmake/no-vcs2version-info.cmake
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..6d99fdece7
--- /dev/null
+++ b/cmake/no-vcs2version-info.cmake
@@ -0,0 +1,19 @@
+# Create the gnc-vcs-info.h file starting from a source directory that's
+# - not a git working directory
+# - not extracted from a distribution tarball
+# It currently sets four parameters
+# - GNC_VCS_REV
+# - GNC_VCS_REV_DATE
+# - GNC_VCS_REV_YEAR
+# - GNC_VCS_REV_Y_M
+# The following environment variables are used and should be properly set
+# by the calling code:
+# - PROJECT_VERSION
+# - SRC (full path to gnc-vcs-info.h.in)
+# - DST (full path to destination for gnc-vcs-info.h)
+
+set (GNC_VCS_REV "${PROJECT_VERSION}-unknown-commit")
+string (TIMESTAMP GNC_VCS_REV_DATE "%Y-%m-%d")
+string(SUBSTRING ${GNC_VCS_REV_DATE} 0 4 GNC_VCS_REV_YEAR)
+string(SUBSTRING ${GNC_VCS_REV_DATE} 0 7 GNC_VCS_REV_Y_M)
+configure_file(${SRC} ${DST} @ONLY)
diff --git a/gnucash/gnome/CMakeLists.txt b/gnucash/gnome/CMakeLists.txt
index 67b9b2113a..b1eaed4a91 100644
--- a/gnucash/gnome/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/gnucash/gnome/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -175,7 +175,7 @@ install(TARGETS gnc-gnome
 # No headers to install
 
 set (GNC_APPDATA_IN ${CMAKE_CURRENT_BINARY_DIR}/gnucash.appdata.xml.in)
-if (NOT BUILDING_FROM_VCS)
+if (NOT GENERATE_VCS_INFO)
     # We're building from a dist tarball.
     # As a convenience to packagers we have included a pretranslated
     # intermediate appdata file in the dist tarball.
@@ -255,7 +255,7 @@ set_local_dist(gnome_DIST_local
         CMakeLists.txt gnome.i gnucash.appdata.xml.in.in gnucash.desktop.in.in
         gnucash.releases.xml ${gnc_gnome_noinst_HEADERS} ${gnc_gnome_SOURCES} ${gnome_SCHEME})
 
-dist_add_generated(${BUILDING_FROM_VCS} gnucash.appdata.xml.in)
+dist_add_generated(${GENERATE_VCS_INFO} gnucash.appdata.xml.in)
 add_dependencies(gnucash-appdata dist-gnucash-gnome-gnucash-appdata-xml-in)
 
 set(gnome_DIST ${gnome_DIST_local} ${test_gnome_DIST} PARENT_SCOPE)
diff --git a/libgnucash/core-utils/CMakeLists.txt b/libgnucash/core-utils/CMakeLists.txt
index 773eb875dc..fc9e402abe 100644
--- a/libgnucash/core-utils/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/libgnucash/core-utils/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -87,38 +87,41 @@ set(localedir "${CMAKE_INSTALL_FULL_DATAROOTDIR}/locale")
 configure_file(gncla-dir.h.in gncla-dir.h)
 
 
-### Create gnc-vcs-info.h
-# This can only be done when building from a vcs (git/svn/bzr/svk) working directory.
-# This file is shipped in the distribution tarball, so no need to generate it in that case anyway.
-# The meta-cmake gymnastics here come from https://cmake.org/pipermail/cmake/2010-July/038015.html
-if (BUILDING_FROM_VCS)
-  set(VCS_INFO_BASE_DIR ${CMAKE_BINARY_DIR})
-else()
-  set(VCS_INFO_BASE_DIR ${CMAKE_SOURCE_DIR})
-endif()
-set(VCS_INFO_FILE ${VCS_INFO_BASE_DIR}/libgnucash/core-utils/gnc-vcs-info.h CACHE STRING "path to gnc-vcs-info.h file")
+### Build rules for gnc-vcs-info.h
+# When building from a distribution tarball simply use the one
+# found in the source tree.
+# When building from a git working directory extract the neede information from git.
+# Otherwise work from the PROJECT_VERSION variable and today's date, but annotate
+# the version info to indicate it's inaccurate.
 
-if (BUILDING_FROM_VCS)
-file(WRITE ${CMAKE_CURRENT_BINARY_DIR}/gnc-vcs-info.h.in
+if (GENERATE_VCS_INFO)
+  file(WRITE ${CMAKE_CURRENT_BINARY_DIR}/gnc-vcs-info.h.in
 "/* Autogenerated. Do not change. */
 #define GNC_VCS_REV \"@GNC_VCS_REV@\"
 #define GNC_VCS_REV_DATE \"@GNC_VCS_REV_DATE@\"
 #define GNC_VCS_REV_YEAR \"@GNC_VCS_REV_YEAR@\"
-#define GNC_VCS_REV_Y_M \"@GNC_VCS_REV_Y_M@\"
-")
+#define GNC_VCS_REV_Y_M \"@GNC_VCS_REV_Y_M@\"")
 
-add_custom_target(gnc-vcs-info ALL
-    BYPRODUCTS ${CMAKE_CURRENT_BINARY_DIR}/gnc-vcs-info.h
-    COMMAND ${CMAKE_COMMAND} -D SRC=${CMAKE_CURRENT_BINARY_DIR}/gnc-vcs-info.h.in
-                             -D DST=${CMAKE_CURRENT_BINARY_DIR}/gnc-vcs-info.h
-                             -D SRC_DIR=${CMAKE_SOURCE_DIR}
-                             -D SHELL="${SHELL}"
-                             -P ${CMAKE_SOURCE_DIR}/cmake/git2version-info.cmake
-)
+  if (BUILDING_FROM_VCS)
+    add_custom_target(gnc-vcs-info ALL
+      BYPRODUCTS ${CMAKE_CURRENT_BINARY_DIR}/gnc-vcs-info.h
+      COMMAND ${CMAKE_COMMAND} -D SRC=${CMAKE_CURRENT_BINARY_DIR}/gnc-vcs-info.h.in
+                               -D DST=${CMAKE_CURRENT_BINARY_DIR}/gnc-vcs-info.h
+                               -D SRC_DIR=${CMAKE_SOURCE_DIR}
+                               -D SHELL="${SHELL}"
+                               -P ${CMAKE_SOURCE_DIR}/cmake/git2version-info.cmake)
+  else()
+    add_custom_target(gnc-vcs-info ALL
+      BYPRODUCTS ${CMAKE_CURRENT_BINARY_DIR}/gnc-vcs-info.h
+      COMMAND ${CMAKE_COMMAND} -D SRC=${CMAKE_CURRENT_BINARY_DIR}/gnc-vcs-info.h.in
+                               -D DST=${CMAKE_CURRENT_BINARY_DIR}/gnc-vcs-info.h
+                               -D PROJECT_VERSION=${PROJECT_VERSION}
+                               -P ${CMAKE_SOURCE_DIR}/cmake/no-vcs2version-info.cmake)
+  endif()
 else()
   add_custom_target(gnc-vcs-info DEPENDS ${VCS_INFO_FILE})
 endif()
-dist_add_generated (${BUILDING_FROM_VCS} gnc-vcs-info.h)
+dist_add_generated (${GENERATE_VCS_INFO} gnc-vcs-info.h)
 
 # Dist files
 set_local_dist(core_utils_DIST_local