diff --git a/rbutil/libtools.make b/rbutil/libtools.make
index 2afe4d2af0..77142355c6 100644
--- a/rbutil/libtools.make
+++ b/rbutil/libtools.make
@@ -23,7 +23,7 @@ endif
 TOP := $(dir $(lastword $(MAKEFILE_LIST)))
 
 # overwrite for releases
-APPVERSION ?= $(shell $(TOP)/../tools/version.sh ../)
+APPVERSION ?= $(shell $(TOP)/../tools/version.sh $(TOP)/..)
 CFLAGS += -DVERSION=\""$(APPVERSION)"\"
 TARGET_DIR ?= $(shell pwd)/