diff --git a/perl/configure.ac b/perl/configure.ac
index 9f49db4d..96670069 100644
--- a/perl/configure.ac
+++ b/perl/configure.ac
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-AC_INIT(nix-perl, m4_esyscmd([bash -c "echo -n $(cat ../version)$VERSION_SUFFIX"]))
+AC_INIT(nix-perl, m4_esyscmd([bash -c "echo -n $(cat ../.version)$VERSION_SUFFIX"]))
 AC_CONFIG_SRCDIR(MANIFEST)
 AC_CONFIG_AUX_DIR(../config)