diff --git a/buildVersionFile.php b/buildVersionFile.php
index 34af0f03..17666ad5 100644
--- a/buildVersionFile.php
+++ b/buildVersionFile.php
@@ -2,7 +2,7 @@
 
 declare(strict_types=1);
 
-$currentTag = trim(shell_exec('git describe --tags'));
+$currentTag = trim(shell_exec('git describe --tags')) ?? '';
 exec('git diff-files --quiet', $output, $returnValue);
 
 $dirty = $returnValue === 0 ? '' : ' dirty';