diff --git a/CMakeLists.txt b/CMakeLists.txt
index acb58b6b..63a00dbd 100644
--- a/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -8,20 +8,41 @@ project(polybar CXX)
 # a version string is used, so the file supports comments
 file(STRINGS version.txt version_txt REGEX "^[0-9]+\\.[0-9]+\\.[0-9]+.*$" LIMIT_COUNT 1)
 
-# If we are in a git repo we can get the version information from git describe
-execute_process(COMMAND git describe --tags --dirty=-dev
+
+execute_process(COMMAND git rev-parse --show-toplevel
   WORKING_DIRECTORY ${PROJECT_SOURCE_DIR}
-  RESULT_VARIABLE git_result
-  OUTPUT_VARIABLE git_describe
+  RESULT_VARIABLE git_top_dir_result
+  OUTPUT_VARIABLE git_top_dir
   OUTPUT_STRIP_TRAILING_WHITESPACE ERROR_QUIET)
 
-if(git_result EQUAL "0")
-  set(APP_VERSION "${git_describe}")
-else()
-  message(STATUS "Could not detect version with git, falling back to built-in version information.")
-  set(APP_VERSION "${version_txt}")
+# Set fallback first, override if more information (from git) is found
+set(APP_VERSION "${version_txt}")
+
+# Prevent formatting errors & resolve symlinks (REALPATH)
+get_filename_component(resolved_project_source_dir ${PROJECT_SOURCE_DIR} REALPATH)
+if(NOT ("${git_top_dir}" STREQUAL ""))
+  get_filename_component(git_top_dir ${git_top_dir} REALPATH)
 endif()
 
+if(git_top_dir_result EQUAL "0" AND git_top_dir STREQUAL resolved_project_source_dir)
+  # If we are in a git repo we can get the version information from git describe
+  execute_process(COMMAND git describe --tags --dirty=-dev
+    WORKING_DIRECTORY ${PROJECT_SOURCE_DIR}
+    RESULT_VARIABLE git_describe_result
+    OUTPUT_VARIABLE git_describe
+    OUTPUT_STRIP_TRAILING_WHITESPACE ERROR_QUIET)
+
+  if(git_describe_result EQUAL "0")
+    set(APP_VERSION "${git_describe}")
+  else()
+    message(STATUS "Could not detect version with git, falling back to built-in version information.")
+  endif()
+
+else()
+  message(STATUS "CMake and git directory mismatch, falling back to built-in version information.") # Assuming that if git rev-parse doesn't return 0, git describe won't either
+endif()
+
+
 # Set the default installation prefix to /usr
 # Otherwise the default value is /usr/local which causes the default config
 # file to be installed to /usr/local/etc, with /usr, cmake has special handling