~~~
diff --git a/configure.ac b/configure.ac
index 446be2f27..33781eeb3 100644
--- a/configure.ac
+++ b/configure.ac
@@ -155,9 +155,8 @@ AC_SUBST(VERSION)
RELEASE=`cat $srcdir/VERSION`
AC_MSG_NOTICE(Release set to $RELEASE)
AC_SUBST(RELEASE)
-VERSION_NUMBER=[`cat $srcdir/VERSION \
- | sed 's/[^0-9]/ /g' \
- | awk '{printf "%d%03d%03d",$1,$2,$3}'`]
+VERSION_NUMBER=[`sed 's/[^0-9]/ /g' $srcdir/VERSION \
+ | awk '{printf "%d%02d%02d%02d",$1,$2,$3,NF<=3?0:$4}'`]
AC_MSG_NOTICE(Version number set to $VERSION_NUMBER)
AC_SUBST(VERSION_NUMBER)
~~~