-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.