diff --git a/hbase-common/pom.xml b/hbase-common/pom.xml
index 0efff9d5bb5..a8fed82ece6 100644
--- a/hbase-common/pom.xml
+++ b/hbase-common/pom.xml
@@ -86,13 +86,13 @@
           </execution>
                 <!-- Generate web app sources -->
                 <execution>
-                    <id>generate</id>
+                    <id>generate-Version-information</id>
                     <phase>generate-sources</phase>
                     <configuration>
                         <target>
                             <property name="generated.sources" location="${project.build.directory}/generated-sources"/>
 
-                            <exec executable="bash">
+                            <exec executable="bash" failonerror="true">
                                 <arg line="${basedir}/src/saveVersion.sh ${project.version} ${generated.sources}/java"/>
                             </exec>
                         </target>
diff --git a/hbase-common/src/saveVersion.sh b/hbase-common/src/saveVersion.sh
index 97fe6b4874c..507bbb02000 100644
--- a/hbase-common/src/saveVersion.sh
+++ b/hbase-common/src/saveVersion.sh
@@ -37,20 +37,18 @@ fi
 date=`date`
 cwd=`pwd`
 if [ -d .svn ]; then
-  revision=`svn info | sed -n -e 's/Last Changed Rev: \(.*\)/\1/p'`
-  url=`svn info | sed -n -e 's/^URL: \(.*\)/\1/p'`
+  revision=`(svn info | sed -n -e 's/Last Changed Rev: \(.*\)/\1/p') || true`
+  url=`(svn info | sed -n -e 's/^URL: \(.*\)/\1/p') || true`
 elif [ -d .git ]; then
-  revision=`git log -1 --no-show-signature --pretty=format:"%H"`
+  revision=`git log -1 --no-show-signature --pretty=format:"%H" || true`
   hostname=`hostname`
   url="git://${hostname}${cwd}"
-else
+fi
+if [ -z "${revision}" ]; then
+  echo "[WARN] revision info is empty! either we're not in VCS or VCS commands failed." >&2
   revision="Unknown"
   url="file://$cwd"
 fi
-if [ -z $revision ]; then
-  echo "$revision is empty!"
-  exit 1
-fi
 if ! [  -x "$(command -v md5sum)" ]; then
   if ! [ -x "$(command -v md5)" ]; then
     srcChecksum="Unknown"