diff --git a/Makefile b/Makefile
index f6e2d288..8d462915 100644
--- a/Makefile
+++ b/Makefile
@@ -9,6 +9,9 @@ SUBDIRS = aplinfo PVE bin www services configs network-hooks test
 ARCH:=$(shell dpkg-architecture -qDEB_BUILD_ARCH)
 GITVERSION:=$(shell git rev-parse HEAD)
 
+# possibly set via debian/rules(.env)
+REPOID?=$(shell git rev-parse --short=8 HEAD)
+
 DEB=${PACKAGE}_${VERSION}-${PACKAGERELEASE}_${ARCH}.deb
 
 all: ${SUBDIRS}
@@ -28,6 +31,7 @@ $(DEB):
 	mkdir dest
 	rsync -a * dest
 	echo "git clone git://git.proxmox.com/git/pve-manager.git\\ngit checkout ${GITVERSION}" >  dest/debian/SOURCE
+	echo "REPOID_GENERATED=${REPOID}" > dest/debian/rules.env
 	cd dest; dpkg-buildpackage -b -us -uc
 	# supress lintian error: statically-linked-binary usr/bin/pvemailforward
 	lintian -X binaries ${DEB}
diff --git a/PVE/Makefile b/PVE/Makefile
index ad460458..33e62f49 100644
--- a/PVE/Makefile
+++ b/PVE/Makefile
@@ -17,8 +17,6 @@ PERLSOURCE = 			\
 all: pvecfg.pm ${SUBDIRS}
 	set -e && for i in ${SUBDIRS}; do ${MAKE} -C $$i; done
 
-REPOID=$(shell git rev-parse --short=8 HEAD)
-
 pvecfg.pm: pvecfg.pm.in
 	sed -e s/@VERSION@/${VERSION}/ -e s/@PACKAGERELEASE@/${PACKAGERELEASE}/ -e s/@PACKAGE@/${PACKAGE}/ -e s/@REPOID@/${REPOID}/ $< >$@.tmp
 	mv $@.tmp $@
diff --git a/debian/rules b/debian/rules
index 048483aa..bafb3b12 100755
--- a/debian/rules
+++ b/debian/rules
@@ -1,5 +1,9 @@
 #!/usr/bin/make -f
 
+include debian/rules.env
+
+export REPOID=${REPOID_GENERATED}
+
 override_dh_compress:
 	dh_compress -Xaplinfo.dat