diff --git a/scripts/setlocalversion b/scripts/setlocalversion
index 151f04971faad72e9ef60930e78f83f3dd6c03f4..6b54e46a0f1245b348e90dd0855592d911a51e16 100755
--- a/scripts/setlocalversion
+++ b/scripts/setlocalversion
@@ -131,11 +131,14 @@ res="${res}${CONFIG_LOCALVERSION}${LOCALVERSION}"
 if test "$CONFIG_LOCALVERSION_AUTO" = "y"; then
 	# full scm version string
 	res="$res$(scm_version)"
-elif [ -z "${LOCALVERSION}" ]; then
-	# append a plus sign if the repository is not in a clean
-	# annotated or signed tagged state (as git describe only
-	# looks at signed or annotated tags - git tag -a/-s) and
-	# LOCALVERSION= is not specified
+elif [ "${LOCALVERSION+set}" != "set" ]; then
+	# If the variable LOCALVERSION is not set, append a plus
+	# sign if the repository is not in a clean annotated or
+	# signed tagged state (as git describe only looks at signed
+	# or annotated tags - git tag -a/-s).
+	#
+	# If the variable LOCALVERSION is set (including being set
+	# to an empty string), we don't want to append a plus sign.
 	scm=$(scm_version --short)
 	res="$res${scm:++}"
 fi