diff --git a/scripts/setlocalversion b/scripts/setlocalversion
index 63d91e2..8564bed 100755
--- a/scripts/setlocalversion
+++ b/scripts/setlocalversion
@@ -141,7 +141,11 @@ if $scm_only; then
 fi
 
 if test -e include/config/auto.conf; then
-	. include/config/auto.conf
+	# We are interested only in CONFIG_LOCALVERSION and
+        # CONFIG_LOCALVERSION_AUTO, so extract these in a safe
+        # way (i.e. w/o sourcing auto.conf)
+	CONFIG_LOCALVERSION=`cat include/config/auto.conf | awk -F '=' '/^CONFIG_LOCALVERSION=/ {print $2}'`
+	CONFIG_LOCALVERSION_AUTO=`cat include/config/auto.conf | awk -F '=' '/^CONFIG_LOCALVERSION_AUTO=/ {print $2}'`
 else
 	echo "Error: kernelrelease not valid - run 'make prepare' to update it"
 	exit 1