diff --git a/Makefile b/Makefile
index 1f118ca5e0..ad07f71137 100644
--- a/Makefile
+++ b/Makefile
@@ -94,7 +94,8 @@ endif
 
 REPO_BRANCH=$(shell git rev-parse --abbrev-ref HEAD | tr / _)
 REPO_SHA=$(shell git describe --match '$$^' --abbrev=8 --always --dirty)
-REPO_TAG=$(shell git describe --always --tags | grep -E '[0-9]*\.[0-9]*\.[0-9]*' || echo snapshot)
+# set this variable to the current tag only if we are building from a tag (annotated or not), otherwise set it to "snapshot", which means rootfs version will be constructed differently
+REPO_TAG=$(shell git describe --always --tags | grep -E '^[0-9]+\.[0-9]+\.[0-9]+$$' || echo snapshot)
 REPO_DIRTY_TAG=$(if $(findstring -dirty,$(REPO_SHA)),-$(shell date -u +"%Y-%m-%d.%H.%M"))
 EVE_TREE_TAG = $(shell git describe --abbrev=8 --always --dirty --tags)
 
@@ -103,6 +104,7 @@ ifeq ($(DEV),y)
 endif
 
 # ROOTFS_VERSION used to construct the installer directory
+# set this to the current tag only if we are building from a tag
 ROOTFS_VERSION:=$(if $(findstring snapshot,$(REPO_TAG)),$(EVE_SNAPSHOT_VERSION)-$(REPO_BRANCH)-$(REPO_SHA)$(REPO_DIRTY_TAG)$(DEV_TAG),$(REPO_TAG))
 
 HOSTARCH:=$(subst aarch64,arm64,$(subst x86_64,amd64,$(shell uname -m)))