diff --git a/usr.sbin/zdump/Makefile b/usr.sbin/zdump/Makefile
index 3ac8538d7f64..d98c4b1fe0c4 100644
--- a/usr.sbin/zdump/Makefile
+++ b/usr.sbin/zdump/Makefile
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-#	$NetBSD: Makefile,v 1.11 2016/10/07 15:30:01 christos Exp $
+#	$NetBSD: Makefile,v 1.12 2016/10/20 17:39:08 christos Exp $
 
 .include "${.PARSEDIR}/../zic/Makefile.inc"
 .include <bsd.own.mk>
@@ -7,7 +7,7 @@ PROG=	zdump
 SRCS=	zdump.c
 MAN=	zdump.8
 
-TZVERSION!= ${TOOL_SED} -ne 's/^VERSION=[ 	]*//p' ${NETBSDSRCDIR}/lib/libc/time/Makefile
+TZVERSION!= ${TOOL_CAT} ${NETBSDSRCDIR}/lib/libc/time/version
 CPPFLAGS+=-DPKGVERSION='"(tzcode) "' -DTZVERSION='"${TZVERSION}"'
 
 COPTS.zdump.c += -Wno-format-nonliteral