diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index 6c3ddf4e..ff06e2a6 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -33,6 +33,7 @@ and this project adheres to [Semantic Versioning](https://semver.org/spec/v2.0.0
 - Bump github.com/go-jose/go-jose/v3 to 3.0.3
 - Bump gopkg.in/go-jose/go-jose.v2 to 2.6.3
 - Bump github.com/opencontainers/runc to 1.1.12
+- Dynamically calculate version and release from Git. #1162
 
 ### Fixed
 
diff --git a/Makefile b/Makefile
index be4a931e..3bec429f 100644
--- a/Makefile
+++ b/Makefile
@@ -150,6 +150,7 @@ dist:
 	rm -rf .dist/ $(WAREWULF)-$(VERSION).tar.gz
 	mkdir -p .dist/$(WAREWULF)-$(VERSION)
 	rsync -a --exclude=".github"  --exclude=".vscode" --exclude "*~" * .dist/$(WAREWULF)-$(VERSION)/
+	scripts/get-version.sh >.dist/$(WAREWULF)-$(VERSION)/VERSION
 	cd .dist; tar -czf ../$(WAREWULF)-$(VERSION).tar.gz $(WAREWULF)-$(VERSION)
 	rm -rf .dist
 
diff --git a/Variables.mk b/Variables.mk
index 62d172f2..b6d17784 100644
--- a/Variables.mk
+++ b/Variables.mk
@@ -13,18 +13,8 @@ VARLIST := OS
 # Project Information
 VARLIST += WAREWULF VERSION RELEASE
 WAREWULF ?= warewulf
-VERSION ?= 4.5.x
-RELEASE_INCREMENT ?= 1
-
-GIT_HASH := $(shell test -e .git && git log -1 --format="%h")
-GIT_TAG := $(shell test -e .git && git describe --tags | head -n1)
-ifeq ($(GIT_TAG),v$(VERSION))
-  RELEASE ?= $(RELEASE_INCREMENT)
-else ifdef GIT_HASH
-    RELEASE ?= $(RELEASE_INCREMENT).git_$(GIT_HASH)
-else
-  RELEASE ?= $(RELEASE_INCREMENT)
-endif
+VERSION ?= $(shell scripts/rpm-version.sh $$(scripts/get-version.sh))
+RELEASE ?= $(shell scripts/rpm-release.sh $$(scripts/get-version.sh))
 
 # Use LSB-compliant paths if OS is known
 ifneq ($(OS),)
diff --git a/scripts/get-version.sh b/scripts/get-version.sh
new file mode 100755
index 00000000..d8362c8f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/scripts/get-version.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,77 @@
+#!/bin/sh
+# Copyright (c) Contributors to the Apptainer project, established as
+#   Apptainer a Series of LF Projects LLC.
+#   For website terms of use, trademark policy, privacy policy and other
+#   project policies see https://lfprojects.org/policies
+
+# optionally take commit-ish as argument for debugging purposes
+head=$1
+
+gitrepo=true
+toplevel="$(git rev-parse --show-toplevel 2> /dev/null)"
+
+if test -z "${toplevel}" ; then
+	# failed to get toplevel directory, we are not inside a git
+	# repo?
+	gitrepo=false
+	toplevel=$PWD
+fi
+
+if test -f "${toplevel}/VERSION" ; then
+	cat "${toplevel}/VERSION"
+	exit 0
+fi
+
+# no VERSION file
+
+if ! ${gitrepo} ; then
+	echo "E: Not inside a git repository and no VERSION file found. Abort." 1>&2
+	exit 1
+fi
+
+# gitdesc extracts the closest version tag, removing the leading "v" and
+# returning the rest
+gitdesc() {
+	git describe --match='v[0-9]*' --always --candidates=1 "$@" 2>/dev/null |
+	sed -e 's,^v,,'
+}
+
+closest_tag=$(gitdesc --abbrev=0 ${head})
+current_commit=$(gitdesc ${head})
+if test -n "${head}" ; then
+	# cannot pass --dirty when using commit-ish
+	dirty_info=${current_commit}
+else
+	dirty_info=$(gitdesc --dirty)
+fi
+
+# First figure out if the current commit matches a tag:
+#
+# v3.4.1
+# v3.4.1-rc.1
+
+if [ "${closest_tag}" = "${current_commit}" ] ; then
+	# We are on a tag, leave it alone, maybe including the dirty
+	# mark.
+	#
+	# This works even if we ever use a tag like v3.4.1+pl1 (which we
+	# will hopefully never have).
+	echo "${dirty_info}"
+	exit 0
+fi
+
+# We have something which doesn't exactly match a tag:
+#
+# v3.4.1-315-g21e6d6765
+# v3.4.1-rc.1-315-g21e6d6765
+#
+# Use the -315-g21e6d6765 part as metadata, using + to indicate that
+# this is 3.4.1 with 315 additional changes. Keep the g21e6d6765 part to
+# have a record of the corresponding git commit hash.
+#
+# Transform the above into:
+#
+# v3.4.1+315-g21e6d6765
+# v3.4.1-rc.1+315-g21e6d6765
+
+echo "${dirty_info}" | sed -e "s,^\(${closest_tag}\)-,\1+,"
diff --git a/scripts/rpm-release.sh b/scripts/rpm-release.sh
new file mode 100755
index 00000000..e5ab672e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/scripts/rpm-release.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,18 @@
+#!/bin/bash
+# translate given version to rpm equivalent
+
+if [ $# != 1 ]; then
+    echo "Usage: rpm-release versionstring" >&2
+    exit 2
+fi
+
+# Extract release from a colon-separated suffix:
+#
+# 3.4.2-rc.1:2  ->  2
+release=$(echo "$1" | cut -sd: -f 2)
+if [ "${release}" == "" ]
+then
+    echo 1
+else
+    echo "${release}"
+fi
diff --git a/scripts/rpm-version.sh b/scripts/rpm-version.sh
new file mode 100755
index 00000000..96644259
--- /dev/null
+++ b/scripts/rpm-version.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,14 @@
+#!/bin/bash
+# translate given version to rpm equivalent
+
+if [ $# != 1 ]; then
+    echo "Usage: rpm-version versionstring" >&2
+    exit 2
+fi
+
+# Transform version numbers so that rpm accepts them:
+#
+# 3.4.2-rc.1            ->  3.4.2~rc.1
+# 3.4.2                 ->  3.4.2
+# 3.4.2+522-gee98ef356  ->  3.4.2+522.gee98ef356
+echo "$1" | sed -e 's/:.*//' | sed -e 's,\(^[^+]\+\)-,\1~,; s,-,.,g'