diff --git a/scripts/setlocalversion b/scripts/setlocalversion
index 0c8741b795d0..9ec6c00c4ca4 100755
--- a/scripts/setlocalversion
+++ b/scripts/setlocalversion
@@ -180,13 +180,11 @@ if test "$CONFIG_LOCALVERSION_AUTO" = "y"; then
 	# full scm version string
 	res="$res$(scm_version)"
 else
-	# append a plus sign if the repository is not in a clean
 	# annotated or signed tagged state (as git describe only
 	# looks at signed or annotated tags - git tag -a/-s) and
 	# LOCALVERSION= is not specified
 	if test "${LOCALVERSION+set}" != "set"; then
 		scm=$(scm_version --short)
-		res="$res${scm:++}"
 	fi
 fi