diff --git a/scripts/setlocalversion b/scripts/setlocalversion
index 64a9cb5556cd..e90a91cc5185 100755
--- a/scripts/setlocalversion
+++ b/scripts/setlocalversion
@@ -86,7 +86,7 @@ scm_version()
 
 	# Check for mercurial and a mercurial repo.
 	if hgid=`hg id 2>/dev/null`; then
-		tag=`printf '%s' "$hgid" | cut -d' ' -f2`
+		tag=`printf '%s' "$hgid" | cut -s -d' ' -f2`
 
 		# Do we have an untagged version?
 		if [ -z "$tag" -o "$tag" = tip ]; then