diff --git a/Makefile b/Makefile
index c68fd114a..f79208c53 100644
--- a/Makefile
+++ b/Makefile
@@ -23,7 +23,6 @@ DESTDIR ?= /usr/local
 VERSION=$(shell git describe --match 'v[0-9]*' --dirty='.m' --always)
 REVISION=$(shell git rev-parse HEAD)$(shell if ! git diff --no-ext-diff --quiet --exit-code; then echo .m; fi)
 PACKAGE=github.com/containerd/containerd
-GOVERSION=$(shell go version | awk '{print $$3}')
 
 ifneq "$(strip $(shell command -v go 2>/dev/null))" ""
 	GOOS ?= $(shell go env GOOS)
@@ -92,7 +91,7 @@ endif
 GO_BUILDTAGS ?= seccomp apparmor
 GO_BUILDTAGS += ${DEBUG_TAGS}
 GO_TAGS=$(if $(GO_BUILDTAGS),-tags "$(GO_BUILDTAGS)",)
-GO_LDFLAGS=-ldflags '-X $(PKG)/version.Version=$(VERSION) -X $(PKG)/version.Revision=$(REVISION) -X $(PKG)/version.Package=$(PACKAGE) -X $(PKG)/version.GoVersion=$(GOVERSION)  $(EXTRA_LDFLAGS)'
+GO_LDFLAGS=-ldflags '-X $(PKG)/version.Version=$(VERSION) -X $(PKG)/version.Revision=$(REVISION) -X $(PKG)/version.Package=$(PACKAGE) $(EXTRA_LDFLAGS)'
 SHIM_GO_LDFLAGS=-ldflags '-X $(PKG)/version.Version=$(VERSION) -X $(PKG)/version.Revision=$(REVISION) -X $(PKG)/version.Package=$(PACKAGE) -extldflags "-static" $(EXTRA_LDFLAGS)'
 
 #Replaces ":" (*nix), ";" (windows) with newline for easy parsing
diff --git a/version/version.go b/version/version.go
index 7cccf93a6..aa250aa5e 100644
--- a/version/version.go
+++ b/version/version.go
@@ -16,6 +16,8 @@
 
 package version
 
+import "runtime"
+
 var (
 	// Package is filled at linking time
 	Package = "github.com/containerd/containerd"
@@ -27,6 +29,6 @@ var (
 	// the program at linking time.
 	Revision = ""
 
-	// GoVersion is filled at linking time
-	GoVersion = ""
+	// GoVersion is Go tree's version.
+	GoVersion = runtime.Version()
 )