diff --git a/tools/perf/Makefile b/tools/perf/Makefile
index 6aef6d00e3c2..a84021abb3fe 100644
--- a/tools/perf/Makefile
+++ b/tools/perf/Makefile
@@ -50,7 +50,6 @@ include config/utilities.mak
 
 $(OUTPUT)PERF-VERSION-FILE: .FORCE-PERF-VERSION-FILE
 	@$(SHELL_PATH) util/PERF-VERSION-GEN $(OUTPUT)
--include $(OUTPUT)PERF-VERSION-FILE
 
 uname_M := $(shell uname -m 2>/dev/null || echo not)
 
@@ -887,7 +886,7 @@ strip: $(PROGRAMS) $(OUTPUT)perf
 	$(STRIP) $(STRIP_OPTS) $(PROGRAMS) $(OUTPUT)perf
 
 $(OUTPUT)perf.o: perf.c $(OUTPUT)common-cmds.h $(OUTPUT)PERF-CFLAGS
-	$(QUIET_CC)$(CC) -DPERF_VERSION='"$(PERF_VERSION)"' \
+	$(QUIET_CC)$(CC) -include $(OUTPUT)PERF-VERSION-FILE \
 		'-DPERF_HTML_PATH="$(htmldir_SQ)"' \
 		$(ALL_CFLAGS) -c $(filter %.c,$^) -o $@
 
diff --git a/tools/perf/util/PERF-VERSION-GEN b/tools/perf/util/PERF-VERSION-GEN
index 6aa34e5afdcf..055fef34b6f6 100755
--- a/tools/perf/util/PERF-VERSION-GEN
+++ b/tools/perf/util/PERF-VERSION-GEN
@@ -26,13 +26,13 @@ VN=$(expr "$VN" : v*'\(.*\)')
 
 if test -r $GVF
 then
-	VC=$(sed -e 's/^PERF_VERSION = //' <$GVF)
+	VC=$(sed -e 's/^#define PERF_VERSION "\(.*\)"/\1/' <$GVF)
 else
 	VC=unset
 fi
 test "$VN" = "$VC" || {
 	echo >&2 "PERF_VERSION = $VN"
-	echo "PERF_VERSION = $VN" >$GVF
+	echo "#define PERF_VERSION \"$VN\"" >$GVF
 }