diff --git a/versioneer.py b/versioneer.py
index 64fea1c89..68e58376b 100644
--- a/versioneer.py
+++ b/versioneer.py
@@ -1047,7 +1047,7 @@ def git_pieces_from_vcs(tag_prefix, root, verbose, run_command=run_command):
     # if there is a tag matching tag_prefix, this yields TAG-NUM-gHEX[-dirty]
     # if there isn't one, this yields HEX[-dirty] (no NUM)
     describe_out, rc = run_command(GITS, ["describe", "--tags", "--dirty",
-                                          "--always", "--long",
+                                          "--always", "--long", "--abbrev=8",
                                           "--match", "%s*" % tag_prefix],
                                    cwd=root)
     # --long was added in git-1.5.5