-# Take the contents of any files called localversion* and the config
-# variable CONFIG_LOCALVERSION and append them to KERNELRELEASE.
-# LOCALVERSION from the command line override all of this
-
-nullstring :=
-space := $(nullstring) # end of line
-
-___localver = $(objtree)/localversion* $(srctree)/localversion*
-__localver = $(sort $(wildcard $(___localver)))
-# skip backup files (containing '~')
-_localver = $(foreach f, $(__localver), $(if $(findstring ~, $(f)),,$(f)))
-
-localver = $(subst $(space),, \
- $(shell cat /dev/null $(_localver)) \
- $(patsubst "%",%,$(CONFIG_LOCALVERSION)))
-
+# The KERNELRELEASE value built here is stored in the file
+# include/config/kernel.release, and is used when executing several
+# make targets, such as "make install" or "make modules_install."
+#
+# The eventual kernel release string consists of the following fields,
+# shown in a hierarchical format to show how smaller parts are concatenated
+# to form the larger and final value, with values coming from places like
+# the Makefile, kernel config options, make command line options and/or
+# SCM tag information.
+#
+# $(KERNELVERSION)
+# $(VERSION) eg, 2
+# $(PATCHLEVEL) eg, 6
+# $(SUBLEVEL) eg, 18
+# $(EXTRAVERSION) eg, -rc6
+# $(localver-full)
+# $(localver)
+# localversion* (files without backups, containing '~')
+# $(CONFIG_LOCALVERSION) (from kernel config setting)
+# $(localver-auto) (only if CONFIG_LOCALVERSION_AUTO is set)
+# ./scripts/setlocalversion (SCM tag, if one exists)
+# $(LOCALVERSION) (from make command line if provided)
+#
+# Note how the final $(localver-auto) string is included *only* if the
+# kernel config option CONFIG_LOCALVERSION_AUTO is selected. Also, at the
+# moment, only git is supported but other SCMs can edit the script
+# scripts/setlocalversion and add the appropriate checks as needed.
+
+pattern = ".*/localversion[^~]*"
+string = $(shell cat /dev/null \
+ `find $(objtree) $(srctree) -maxdepth 1 -regex $(pattern) | sort`)
+
+localver = $(subst $(space),, $(string) \
+ $(patsubst "%",%,$(CONFIG_LOCALVERSION)))
+