diff --git a/RELEASE b/RELEASE
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..eb49d7c7fd
--- /dev/null
+++ b/RELEASE
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+0.7
diff --git a/version.sh b/version.sh
index 6ec2b2567e..7911e46166 100755
--- a/version.sh
+++ b/version.sh
@@ -5,7 +5,7 @@ revision=$(cd "$1" && git describe --always 2> /dev/null)
 test "$revision" && revision=git-$revision
 
 # no revision number found
-test "$revision" || revision=UNKNOWN
+test "$revision" || revision=$(cd "$1" && cat RELEASE 2> /dev/null)
 
 # releases extract the version number from the VERSION file
 version=$(cd "$1" && cat VERSION 2> /dev/null)