diff --git a/README b/README
index 07ccac183..6b844270b 100644
--- a/README
+++ b/README
@@ -252,11 +252,6 @@ The following additional options may also be useful:
   --disable-wextra        Disable extra compiler warnings
   --disable-werror        Do not treat warnings as errors
 
-  --enable-release        Enable building of an OpenOCD release.  This
-			  option is intended for project maintainers.
-			  It simply omits the svn version string when
-			  the openocd -v is executed (to KISS).
-
   --disable-option-checking
                           Ignore unrecognized --enable and --with options.
   --disable-dependency-tracking  speeds up one-time build
diff --git a/configure.in b/configure.in
index 082b1e65a..5ce3ff3c3 100644
--- a/configure.in
+++ b/configure.in
@@ -89,17 +89,20 @@ is_cygwin=no
 is_mingw=no
 is_win32=no
 is_darwin=no
-build_release=yes
-
-AC_ARG_ENABLE(release,
-  AS_HELP_STRING([--enable-release], [Enable Release Build, default no]),
-  [build_release=$enableval], [build_release=no])
 
 if test $cross_compiling = no; then
-  if test $build_release = no; then
-    # check we can find guess-rev.sh
-    AC_CHECK_FILE("$srcdir/guess-rev.sh", build_release=no, build_release=yes)
+  # guess-rev.sh only exists in the repository, not in the released archives
+  AC_CHECK_FILE("$srcdir/guess-rev.sh", has_guess_rev=yes, has_guess_rev=no)
+
+  AC_MSG_CHECKING([whether to build a release])
+  if test $has_guess_rev = no; then
+    build_release=yes
+  else
+    build_release=no
   fi
+  AC_MSG_RESULT($build_release)
+else
+  build_release=yes
 fi
 
 # We are not *ALWAYS* being installed in the standard place.